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suggested earlier this year that Western troops should be sent to Ukraine. While Nato special forces are likely to already be operating in Ukraine in an intelligence-gathering and advisory role, if France openly sent troops to the frontline, Russia would be fighting directly with a Nato country that also has nuclear weapons.
Should Nato become more involved in the Russia-Ukraine war or even consider granting Ukraine membership? And would Nato membership protect Ukraine from Russian aggression?
No, making Ukraine a Nato member is not the solution to ending the war. According to Nato’s website,
Article 5 of the Nato treaty “provides that if a Nato ally is the victim of an armed attack, each and every other member of the alliance will consider this act of violence as an armed attack against all members and will take the actions it deems necessary to assist the ally attacked”.
In other words, even if Ukraine had membership, Nato members are not obliged to get involved if they deem it unnecessary. And if, as is likely, some Nato members object to going to war on Ukraine’s behalf, Russian President Vladimir Putin would no doubt use it as a wedge to further weaken and divide the transatlantic alliance. Besides, if Nato really were eager to get directly involved, it could have done so already.
Nato membership for Ukraine is not the antidote to this toxic war of attrition. And it is unthinkable that Putin would back down merely because Ukraine formally joined Nato.
In addition, a
corrupt Ukraine in Nato would weaken the bloc’s unity, responsiveness and influence. Corruption has been a major
obstacle to Ukraine joining the European Union. Ukraine is ranked 104 out of 180 countries in Transparency International’s latest corruption perceptions index. Despite Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s efforts to fight corruption, the authorities recently uncovered a US$40 million arms corruption scandal involving high-ranking defence ministry officials and contractors.
