For Ukraine to join NATO sooner, we should start emphasizing its agency / The New Voice of Ukraine

After Putin announced his illegal annexation of four Ukrainian regions on September30, President Zelenskyy formally submitted an application for Ukraine’s accelerated accession to NATO. In his speech, Zelenskyy stated that “De facto, we have already completed our path to NATO…. Today, Ukraine is applying to make it de jure…”. But Ukraine is still not in NATO. Out of its 30 member-states, only 9 backed Ukraine’s admission. So what is the reason for Ukraine not being accepted, and what does it take to join the alliance?

One of the most popular explanations mentioned in the press is that NATO does not want to be drawn into a war with Russia and therefore into a third world war. Member states, it is believed, are not ready to be responsible for sending their troops. “As a NATO member, fellow members would be compelled to actively defend it against Russia – a commitment that goes well beyond the supply of weapons,” wrote the Guardian. “In practice, the chances of Ukraine joining NATO have only grown slimmer in the course of the Russian invasion. Member countries, including the United States, have drawn clear lines: They arm Ukraine, but they don’t have their own troops on the ground out of concern for triggering a World War,” says The Washington Post.

While some of these explanations are useful, they often remain simplistic and superficial, say international security experts Oleksiy Melnyk from the Razumkov Center and Dr Taras Zhovtenko, member of MFA of Ukraine Public Advisory Board, who provided comments for this article.

The attentive reader will notice that Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty, so often cited in the press, is rather vague and does not oblige members to do everything possible to counter the threat.

That is, it does not oblige them to send troops or close the sky at the request of the member being attacked. It only states that a threat to one should be taken as a threat to all:

“Article 5 provides that if a NATO Ally is the victim of an armed attack, each and every other member of the Alliance will consider this act of violence as an armed attack against all members and will take the actions it deems necessary to assist the Ally at-tacked.” – states NATO itself.

While it can certainly be argued that current NATO members are reluctant to do more, a further deep dive into NATO’s bureaucracy makes it clear that it is up to the member states collectively to decide how they help a threatened member. NATO is,…