Zelenskyy’s ’victory plan’ includes a big hurdle for the West: NATO membership for Ukraine

Volodymyr Zelenskyy's plan to win Ukraine’s war against Russia could bring peace next year but contains a step that some crucial Western allies have so far refused to countenance: inviting Ukraine to join NATO before the war ends.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Wednesday (October 16, 2024) his plan to win his country’s fight against Russia’s invasion could bring peace next year, but it contains a step that some crucial Western allies have so far refused to countenance: inviting Ukraine to join NATO before the war ends.

“If we start moving according to this victory plan now, it may be possible to end the war no later than next year,” Mr. Zelenskyy told his country’s Parliament.

He has recently been trying to win approval for the plan from Western partners, who so far have stopped short of publicly voicing their support for it.

The first point in Mr. Zelenskyy’s five-point plan that was presented in a speech to the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine’s Parliament, is perhaps the most ambitious and the most likely to make Western allies balk: letting Ukraine into NATO while the fighting continues.

Mr. Zelenskyy said granting Ukraine membership in the alliance would be a “testament of (allies’) determination” to support Ukraine.

It may, however, be too ambitious a step.

NATO’s collective security guarantee — Article 5 of the military alliance’s treaty — is the pillar on which its credibility is based. It is a political commitment by all member countries to come to the aid of any member whose sovereignty or territory might be under attack.