Huge disappointment for Volodymyr Zelensky: Don't pray for Ukraine's impossible NATO membership

Ukraine will not move forward on its path to NATO membership at this year's annual summit in Washington amid fears the alliance could be dragged into war with Russia, British newspaper The Telegraph reports.

Germany and the US are sending clear calls not to make promises to Kiev about the exact timing of its NATO accession in the run-up to a two-day meeting in Washington to mark the organization's 75th anniversary.

"They are very skeptical about moving Ukraine on the path to full membership in NATO this year,”, revealed a source familiar with the position in the administration of US President Joe Biden.

"The US may not be as concerned as Germany, but there is concern about the threat posed by Russia to the rest of the Alliance,”, the editor's interlocutor also explains.

The decision is expected to disappoint Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky, who is already

Last year, Zelensky defined as "absurd" the decision of NATO leaders not to extend an invitation to Kiev for full membership at the meeting in Vilnius, Lithuania.

According to Alliance sources, senior NATO officials conducted "managing expectations” after the summit after it was decided that the members supporting Ukraine's accession, including Britain, had caused too much pressure around the decision.

The issue of Ukraine's membership dominated last year's NATO summit and created divisions among member states. A similar incident in Washington would support Donald Trump's theses regarding the importance of the Alliance before the US presidential elections, the newspaper's sources claim.

While NATO leaders will decline to provide a timetable for Ukraine's membership, they will offer what is described as a "bridge” or "road” to the accession of Kyiv as a demonstration of support for the process.

The package currently under discussion will emphasize Ukraine's "ability to choose its own future” and will demonstrate that "the path to membership is getting shorter” as it defends itself against Russia, two diplomats said.

NATO first admitted Ukraine to membership in 2008, but the organization has never finalized a timetable or process for its accession.

Member states have since agreed that Kiev will not be allowed to join the Alliance while it is at war with Russia, given that this would trigger the mutual defense clause under Art. 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty.

In Vilnius, Britain and France insisted on the word "invitation" be included in the closing statement of the meeting to confirm that this is a political obstacle and not a decision blocking Ukraine's membership.

"This is not an invitation, but it is the next closest thing," a diplomat explains about the latest offer to Kiev.

The package will focus on strengthening the Armed Forces of Ukraine to ensure that Kiev is ready to immediately join NATO when the Alliance's leaders agree that the time is right.

To do this, NATO will take over the leadership role from the US in the form of "Rammstein”, the group of more than 50 allies that coordinate military aid to Ukraine.

Jens Stoltenberg, NATO's secretary general, also tried to get the alliance's 32 members to commit to a $100 billion fund to bring the Ukrainian military up to "NATO standard" through arms supplies and training.

With some member states expressing skepticism about the total, there is now talk of replacing the fund with a pledge from each ally to allocate a percentage of defense spending to Kiev's needs.