NATO and Ukraine are holding their first ever high-level talks in a new format. The 31-nation alliance is not letting Ukraine join while the war with Russia is going on, but has launched a NATO-Ukraine Council as part of its political commitment to the country. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has welcomed the recent U.S. decision to send cluster munitions to his country, saying Russia also uses the controversial and widely banned weapons. Follow along for updates on the summit of the NATO military alliance in Lithuania’s capital, as reported by the Associated Press:
NATO, Ukraine hold their 1st high-level talks
Newslooks- VILNIUS, Lithuania (AP)
NATO and Ukraine are holding their first ever high-level talks in a new format.
The 31-nation alliance is not letting Ukraine join while the war with Russia is going on, but has launched a NATO-Ukraine Council as part of its political commitment to the country.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg says it’s “a forum where Ukraine and NATO allies will meet as equals, hold crisis consultations and jointly take decisions. Ukraine is now closer to NATO than ever before.”
Hungary has blocked high-level talks with Ukraine in the past due to concerns over the rights of the ethnic Hungarian minority living in Ukraine. But Stoltenberg said he and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy can convene the NATO-Ukraine Council, so it cannot be blocked.
“This is something new, this is something different. It’s a strong tool for political integration, and also for decision-making,” Stoltenberg said Wednesday before chairing the meeting.
Russia had a similar arrangement with NATO, but meetings dwindled after it annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in 2014. Once the war started last year, the allies ruled that “NATO cannot consider Russia to be a partner.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has welcomed the recent U.S. decision to send cluster munitions to his country, saying Russia also uses the controversial and widely banned weapons.
“Russia constantly uses cluster munitions on our territory. It wages war exclusively on our land. It kills our people,” he said Wednesday at the NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania.
“This is about justice,” Zelenskyy added. “We defend ourselves, without using (these) weapons on the territory of other states.” Zelenskyy said. Any cluster munitions supplied to Ukraine, he said, would be used “purely for military purposes” and “purely” in Russian-occupied parts of southern and eastern Ukraine.
President Joe Biden earlier this week described the decision to provide the projectiles as “very difficult,” citing their record of killing civilians. Over 120 countries across the world — but not the U.S., Russia or Ukraine — have signed on to an international convention prohibiting the production of cluster munitions and discouraging their use. Both Moscow and Kyiv have deployed the munitions during the war, and Ukrainian regional officials have regularly accused Russian forces of using them to target civilians.
Zelenskyy on Wednesday praised NATO’s decision to simplify Ukraine’s path to eventual membership and hailed new security guarantees and military aid for his country emerging from the alliance summit.
“The results of the summit are good, but if there were an invitation, that would be ideal,” Zelenskyy said at a press briefing with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg in Vilnius, Lithuania. A day earlier, he tweeted that it was “absurd” that NATO hadn’t set a timetable for Ukrainian membership.
He welcomed the alliance’s move to drop the requirement for Kyiv to submit a formal membership action plan prior to joining as “an important step.” NATO said Tuesday Ukraine could join when “allies agree and conditions are met.”
Zelenskyy also lauded “very positive news” regarding new military aid packages from NATO countries. He met with leaders of the alliance on Wednesday, without immediately providing details.
The Ukrainian leaders thanked Western backers for their ongoing support, but suggested they don’t fully understand the realities of war that Ukraine has been facing since Russian forces invaded in February last year.
NATO members have taken steps to expedite Ukraine’s membership once the war is over.
“The most important thing is to have results, so that we can see concrete steps that bring us closer to NATO,” Zelenskyy said.
British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace has raised some eyebrows by suggesting that Ukraine should appear more grateful for Western military support and not treat allies like “Amazon.”
“Whether we like it or not, people want to see gratitude,” Wallace told reporters at the NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, noting that Ukraine was persuading other countries to give up their own stocks of weapons.
In comments cited by multiple British media outlets, including The Times of London, The Guardian and the Independent, Wallace said he had heard “grumbles” from lawmakers on Capitol Hill in Washington that “we’re not Amazon.”
“I mean, that’s true,” he was quoted as saying. “I told them that last June: I said to the Ukrainians when I drove 11 hours to be given a list: ‘I’m not Amazon.’”
U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s spokesman, Max Blain, downplayed the remarks.
“I think you have heard from President Zelenskyy repeatedly, and indeed today, about his gratitude to the people of the United Kingdom for their support and their generosity,” he said, adding that “the U.K. government and the U.K. people will be steadfast in support” of Ukraine.
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What to know:
— NATO backs Ukraine’s fight vs. Russia but doesn’t invite Kyiv to join
— Sweden’s rocky road from neutrality toward NATO membership
— What is NATO doing to help Ukraine in the war with Russia?
