British ministers have been criticized as "foolish and cynical" for urging Ukraine to pursue NATO membership.
Upon asking Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to share his suggestion over Ukraine could give up territory to Russia in exchange for joining the US-led alliance as part of a peace agreement, Pat McFadden, the chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, stated that Ukraine would be "free to make decisions about its own future."
McFadden said, “I don’t know whether Ukraine will be part of Nato or not in the future.”
Meanwhile, Lindsey German, the convener of Stop the War Coalition said that “for the Labour government to endorse Zelensky’s view that Nato membership is the way to end the war is foolish and cynical … as it knows one reason for the conflict was precisely this.”
The convener added, “Nato expansion has made eastern Europe more dangerous.”
However, Former German chancellor Angela Merkel shared her satnce on defended her decision to halt NATO membership for Ukraine and Georgia in 2008 in her recently published memoirs.
Markel wrote, “Zelensky is desperately trying to get a favourable deal with [incoming US president Donald] Trump but given that … one of [Russian leader Vladimir] Putin’s main points of opposition is to Ukraine joining Nato, it is unlikely to pan out that way.”
She added, “Zelensky also has to deal with the growing unpopularity of the war and the discontent among troops, where desertions are growing rapidly,” adding, “We need peace negotiations now.
