Ukraines ex-top general says NATO membership impossible under current model
Ukraine will never join NATO under the alliance’s current model, Valerii Zaluzhnyi, Ukraine’s ambassador to the U.K. and former commander-in-chief of its armed forces, said on Monday.
Speaking to Ukrainian ambassadors in Kyiv, Zaluzhnyi stated that after 12 years of working to adopt NATO standards, he had repeatedly heard promises of imminent membership that never materialized. “Unfortunately, we will never join it,” he said, according to Ukrainian media reports .
Zaluzhnyi argued that NATO’s reliance on “doctrines of World War II” and its slow adaptation to modern warfare make accession impossible for Ukraine, despite its advanced military capabilities, particularly in drone technology. He emphasized that Ukraine still requires technologies available in NATO countries, such as ballistic missile defenses, but that the alliance’s current structure fails to meet the challenges posed by Russia’s full-scale invasion .
The remarks reflect a shift in Ukraine’s relationship with NATO, with Kyiv increasingly seen as a key European security provider. Zaluzhnyi, who remains one of Ukraine’s most trusted public figures with 73 percent support according to a June poll by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology, has previously criticized NATO’s preparedness for 21st-century conflicts. In a July opinion piece for *The Daily Telegraph*, he wrote that the war in Ukraine had “exposed uncomfortable questions about whether NATO is equipped for the conflicts of the 21st century” .
Zaluzhnyi also suggested that future security guarantees for Ukraine could be tied to new defense alliances rather than NATO membership. He reiterated that Ukraine’s ability to sustain the war depends heavily on continued support from its allies .
The comments come as Ukraine continues to push for deeper integration with Western institutions. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has separately emphasized Ukraine’s efforts to meet EU accession criteria, while also proposing a new regional security initiative, the Carpathian Initiative, which would include Romania and other countries with shared economic and security interests .
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