In recent years, the West has failed to grasp the fact that Russia was preparing for a full-scale war in Ukraine, and continued building up relations with the Kremlin. This turned out to be a grave mistake, Kurt Volker, the Special Representative of the U.S. Government for Negotiations on Ukraine in 2017-2019, said.
Membership in NATO will become real if, thanks to the counteroffensive, Ukraine returns Kherson and Zaporizhia regions, and the effectiveness of any agreements with Russia will depend on Ukraine's membership in the Alliance, Stanford University Professor Francis Fukuyama said.
Leader of the European Solidarity party, the fifth president of Ukraine (2014-19), Petro Poroshenko, during his speech at the 15th annual Kyiv Security Forum, founded by the Open Ukraine Arseniy Yatsenyuk Foundation, said that the NATO summit in Vilnius should not repeat the mistake of Bucharest-2008 and announce the invitation of Ukraine to the Alliance, the European Solidarity said on its website on Friday.
John Herbst, Director of the Eurasia Center of the Atlantic Council, U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine in 2003-2006, believes that Russia's threats to use nuclear weapons deter the USA from accepting Ukraine into NATO.
Permanent Representative of the United States to NATO in 2013-17, General Douglas Lute, proposed the creation of the Ukraine–NATO Council before Ukraine join the Alliance, and also stated that the Armed Forces of Ukraine today is the most equipped army in Europe with the greatest combat experience.