Should Ukraine’s NATO application be approved? POLL

Vladimir Putin signs treaties annexing Ukrainian regions

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky revealed that Ukraine was officially applying for NATO membership to help protect “the entire community” of Ukrainians last week. But do you think the country should be allowed to join? Vote in our poll.

In a speech filmed outside his presidential office in Kyiv, Mr Zelensky said on Friday, September 30,  that he was making the move as a “decisive step”, promising the application to happen in an “expedited manner”. 

He added:  “We trust each other, we help each other, and we protect each other. This is the alliance. De facto. Today, Ukraine is applying to make it de jure.”

It came just hours before Russian President Vladimir Putin in a Kremlin ceremony declared that he was annexing four Ukrainian regions.

On Friday, NATO Chief Jens Stoltenberg said at a news conference: “Every democracy in Europe has the right to apply for NATO membership, and NATO allies respect that right, and we have stated again and again that NATO’s door remains open.”

He added that NATO members upheld the view that they “support Ukraine’s right to choose its own path, to decide what kind of security arrangements it wants to be part of” at a summit in Madrid in June.

Deputy director of the Transatlantic Security Initiative in the Scowcroft Centre for Strategy and Security at the Atlantic Council, Leah Scheunemann, said: “Supporting Nato’s open-door policy and actually admitting Ukraine into the alliance are very different things.” 

She added: “NATO is not ready as a whole to act on Ukraine’s application.”

Nine Central and Eastern European NATO member states declared their support for Ukraine’s position in the alliance on Sunday, October 2.

In a joint statement, the presidents of the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Poland, Romania and  Slovakia said they “firmly stand behind” the decision on Ukraine’s membership made at the Bucharest summit in 2008.

At the summit, NATO allies pledged to eventually admit Ukraine and Georgia as NATO members – but no timeline was set.

A recent survey of 2,000 Ukrainians by Rating Group from October 1 to 2 shows that 83 percent are in favour of Ukraine joining NATO.

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The opinion pollster said the support was the highest-ever recorded in Ukraine, with four percent voting against joining the bloc and nine percent abstaining.

NATO membership requires a unanimous agreement between all 30 member states.

The alliance has welcomed applications from Finland and Sweden in recent months, stimulated by security concerns from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

In addition, NATO’s treaty includes the collective defence clause Article 5, which restricts accepting candidates at war or with disputed territories.

So what do YOU think? Should Ukraine’s NATO application be approved? Vote in our poll and leave your thoughts in the comment section below.

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