 "Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha speaks at a joint press conference with his Czech counterpart Jan Lipavsky (not pictured), amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine, on November 22, 2024. Reuters File")
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha has called on Nato allies to extend an invitation to Ukraine to join the military alliance during their meeting in Brussels next week, according to a Reuters report, citing a letter on Friday.
The appeal marks a renewed effort by Kyiv to secure Nato membership, part of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s “victory plan” announced last month to end the war following Russia’s 2022 invasion.
While Ukraine acknowledges it cannot join Nato until the conflict concludes, receiving an invitation now would send a strong message to Russian President Vladimir Putin, demonstrating that one of his key objectives — blocking Ukraine’s NATO membership — has failed.
Nato has declared that Ukraine will eventually join the alliance and is on an “irreversible” path to membership, though no formal invitation or timeline has been established.
According to Nato diplomats, there is currently no agreement among member countries to extend an invitation to Ukraine. Such a decision would need the approval of all 32 member nations.
In his letter, written in English, Sybiha contended that now is the right time to issue an invitation.
“We believe that the invitation should be extended at this stage,” Reuters quoted him as saying in the letter.
“It will become the Allies’ adequate response to Russia’s constant escalation of the war it has unleashed, the latest demonstration of which is the involvement of tens of thousands of North Korean troops and the use of Ukraine as a testing ground for new weapons,” Sybiha added.
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More Shorts“I urge you to endorse the decision to invite Ukraine to join the Alliance as one of the outcomes of the Nato Foreign Ministerial Meeting on 3-4 December 2024,” he wrote.
With inputs from agencies