In an interview with Newsweek , Estonia’s foreign minister Urmas Reinsalu urged NATO allies not to exclude Ukraine from the transnational alliance in exchange for peace with Russia.
He warned that doing so would strand Ukraine in a “grey zone” in which its only means of deterring further aggression from Moscow would be the use of increasingly devastating weapons.
TSN.AU reports: According to him, in the future, perhaps the only guarantee of Ukraine’s security from Moscow is membership in the NATO or possession of nuclear weapons. Since this option is “impossible and undesirable,” Reinsalu urged the allies not to deny Ukraine NATO membership in exchange for a truce with Russia.
“If we say that we would not in practice see Ukraine as a member of NATO after this war, it would mean that we are afraid—or predict that—Russia will attack again and then NATO countries will be involved in a world war, or at least a war over the European continent,” Estonian Foreign Minister emphasized.
He criticized the alternative to Ukraine’s membership in NATO – a security treaty, which, according to The Wall Street Journal, is being proposed by the United Kingdom, Germany and France.
” What’s the point of trying to copy NATO if you are making it clear that it is not NATO? It’s like a half-NATO. I would be rather suspicious of that replica,” he noted.
According to Reinsalu, if Ukraine remains outside the NATO security zone, it will undermine the country’s recovery process. After all, it will have to invest resources primarily in defense.