'It's absurd': Zelenskyy attacks Nato compromise on Ukraine membership

Turkey Agrees to Support Sweden's NATO Bid

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said it would be “absurd” if the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (Nato) leaders gathering on Tuesday did not offer his country a timeframe for membership and suggested the military alliance was not ready to open its doors to Ukraine.

According to the Financial Times, a draft of a summit communiqué under discussion pledges to “extend an invitation” to Ukraine to join the alliance when “allies agree and conditions are met”

Zelenskyy, however, spoke against what he saw as weak wording around Ukraine's bid for Nato membership. “It's unprecedented and absurd when a timeframe is not set, neither for the invitation nor for Ukraine's membership," he said before landing at the meeting as a special guest.

Zelenskyy’s salvo at the start of a summit came after Nato chief Jens Stoltenberg said the bloc would send Kyiv a “positive message” on its path to membership, though diplomats said the exact wording was yet to be determined and could contain riders.

It highlighted the divisions among Nato’s 31 members over giving a date or a straightforward invitation for Ukraine to join. Kyiv has been pushing for a swift entry, bound together with security guarantees, since even before Russia unleashed its invasion.

Secretary General Stoltenberg said Kyiv would get more military aid and security guarantees, an easing of formal conditions to join, as well as a new format of cooperation with the alliance, the so-called Nato-Ukraine Council.

"I expect the allies will send a clear, united and positive message on the path towards membership for Ukraine," Stoltenberg said.

US clears path for F-16 sales to Turkey

Washington will move ahead with the transfer of F-16 fighter jets to Turkey in consultation with Congress, US NSA Jake Sullivan said on Tuesday, a day after Ankara gave the green light for Sweden to join Nato. Turkey, which had been the main stumbling bloc on Sweden's path towards the alliance, had requested in October 2021 to buy $20 billion of Lockheed Martin Corp F-16 fighters and nearly 80 modernisation kits for its existing warplanes. Jens Stoltenberg, Nato’s secretary general, has urged allies to agree to remove the requirement of a Member–ship Action Plan for Ukraine to become a member of the alliance in the future.

Reuters