The leaders of nine European NATO members signed a joint statement Sunday supporting Ukraine’s bid for membership, an application that is likely to face hurdles.
The statement signed by the leaders of the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Poland, Romania and Slovakia also condemned Russia’s claims that it was annexing four regions of Ukraine after widely discredited referendums conducted by occupation governments.
“We firmly stand behind the 2008 Bucharest NATO Summit decision concerning Ukraine’s future membership,” the leaders said in their statement. On Saturday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced that Ukraine had submitted an application to join NATO, although experts have warned that there are significant hurdles ahead because admitting a country requires unanimous consent from all of the alliance’s 30 members. As an alliance predicated on the doctrine of mutual defense, it would be highly unlikely for NATO to admit a country ensnared in war.
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