Moscow - Brussels: Agencies - Europe and the Arabs
European Commissioner for Internal Market Affairs, Terry Burton, stressed the impossibility of Ukraine's accession to NATO, in light of the ongoing conflict.
Burton said - as reported by the "Russia Today" news channel today, Monday, that "Article Five of the NATO agreement stipulates that an attack on one of the members of the bloc is an attack on everyone, and NATO has never accepted a country in a state of war, because that would necessarily mean the involvement of other members." in it too."
A senior NATO official apologized for his comments a day after publicly suggesting that Ukraine could give up part of its territory to Russia in exchange for NATO membership and an end to the war.
Stian Jensen, chief of staff to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, told a Norwegian newspaper that he should not have spoken as flatly as he did, after his initial comments sparked an angry response from Kiev.
"I think the solution might be for Ukraine to give up its territory and get NATO membership in return," Jensen said at a NATO session in Norway, in which members of the alliance discussed how to end the 18-month-old war.
But he gave a newspaper interview a day after the hearing, in which he said, "My statement on this was part of a larger discussion about possible future scenarios in Ukraine, and I should not say it in this way."
In his initial comments, Jensen was careful to stress that he was simply talking about an idea and that "it is up to Ukraine to decide when and on what negotiation terms it wants," reflecting NATO's position that no peace settlement with Russia should be agreed without Ukraine. According to what was reported by the Seventh Day website in Cairo, on the authority of the Middle East News Agency
On the other hand, there was anger in Kiev at Jensen's comments because he is a close ally of Stoltenberg, and she said that any land bargain in exchange for NATO membership would reward Russian aggression.
Mykhailo Podolak, senior advisor to the Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky, said, “Trading land under the NATO umbrella? It's ridiculous.
This means deliberately choosing to defeat democracy, encouraging a "global criminal", preserving the Russian system, destroying international law and passing on war to later generations.
For its part, NATO issued an explanatory statement aimed at calming Jensen's disagreement. "We will continue to support Ukraine as long as necessary, and we are committed to achieving a just and lasting peace. The coalition's position is clear and has not changed," it said.