If Ukraine joined NATO now, it would mean a direct confrontation with Moscow, a senior US official has said. Washington does not wish to spark a direct confrontation with Russia and wants Kiev to end its conflict with Moscow before it joins NATO.
US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan has stated that Ukraine’s future lies in NATO, but said certain conditions must be met before it can join the alliance, which includes ending its conflict with Russia.
In an interview with CBS on Sunday, Sullivan insisted that NATO is committed to accepting Kiev into its ranks despite the lack of a formal invitation or timeline for membership during last week’s NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania.
“Ukraine’s future is in NATO. We meant it. That’s not up for negotiation,” Sullivan said. “That’s something that now all 31 allies have committed to,” he added, referring to the final statement released at the end of the summit, in which all members of the alliance pledged to eventually accept Ukraine into the bloc, once a number of conditions are met.
Speaking to ABC, Sullivan said that accepting Ukraine into the alliance now would mean a direct confrontation between the bloc and Russia.
“Having Ukraine come into NATO while the war is going on would mean that NATO was at war with Russia, it would mean the United States was at war with Russia. And neither NATO nor the United States were prepared to do that,” he said.
Kiev insists that it has already met all of the requirements to join the US-led bloc and has expressed confusion over what more it has to do to qualify for membership.
“When will those conditions be met? What are those conditions? Who should formulate them? What are they?” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba said in an interview with Radio Free Europe last week.
Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky lashed out at NATO for failing to meet Kiev’s membership demands and called the lack of a roadmap towards accession “unprecedented and absurd,” saying NATO’s indecisiveness is a sign of weakness.
The president has admitted in a CNN interview that US forces are running low on artillery shells
US President Joe Biden has sought to justify his controversial decision to send cluster bombs to Ukraine by revealing a potentially sensitive fact about America’s military: It’s running low on artillery shells.
Biden made the admission in a CNN interview that aired on Sunday, saying it was necessary to give cluster munitions to Kiev because 155mm artillery rounds are in short supply. “This is a war relating to munitions, and they’re running out of that ammunition, and we’re low on it,” Biden told CNN’s Fareed Zakaria. The host had pointed out a previous White House claim that the use of cluster bombs by Russian forces could be a “war crime.
Conservative critics, such as US podcast host Steve Guest, argued that Biden blurted out what should have been a state secret. “Joe Biden broadcasts to the world that the US is low on 155mm shells. Does President Biden not care that our adversaries in communist China are listening?”
WATCH: Joe Biden broadcasts to the world that the U.S. is low on 155mm shells.
Does President Biden not care that our adversaries in communist China are listening?
WATCH: Joe Biden broadcasts to the world that the U.S. is low on 155mm shells.
— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) July 9, 2023
Does President Biden not care that our adversaries in communist China are listening?
pic.twitter.com/SxaI6jHo49
Conservatives criticize President Joe Biden for revealing that US artillery stockpiles have dwindled amid the Ukraine conflict.
Former US Senate staffer Logan Dobson agreed, saying, “Love when the president of America goes on CNN to tell everyone we’re low on ammo.”
Biden made his comments as the US and its European allies prepared to gather for this week’s NATO summit in Vilnius, where members of the Western military alliance plan to discuss the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Republican lawmakers argued that his statement to CNN proved that the US-led campaign to provide billions of dollars’ worth of weaponry to Kiev has weakened America’s defenses.
Senator J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) called the remark a “stunning admission from Biden, something I’ve been warning about for over a year. He says the Ukrainians are running low on 155mm artillery shells, and so are we. The Ukraine war is a massive drain on our national security.”
Representative Andy Biggs (R-Arizona) said that in light of Biden’s admission about dwindling artillery stockpiles, “we cannot be sending any more to Ukraine. America comes first.”
An unidentified White House official contradicted Biden’s claim, telling Fox News that military aid to Ukraine had not strained US ammunition supplies. “The military has specific requirements for the numbers of weapons systems and ammunition we maintain in our reserves in case of contingencies or military conflict. Everything we send to Ukraine is in excess of that, so the US is not running out of ammunition ourselves.”
Some US lawmakers have called the Ukraine conflict a “proxy war” against Russia. Podcast host David Sacks, a US technology entrepreneur, said Biden’s strategy appears to be backfiring, even as Washington vastly outspends Russia on defense. “The point of the proxy war was to weaken Russia, but the US ran out of ammo first,” he said. “So who’s weakening whom?”
A worker inspects 155mm shells earlier this year at the Scranton Army Ammunition Plant in Pennsylvania, which has ramped up output amid the Russia-Ukraine crisis. © Getty Images / Hannah Beier