Is NATO membership out of reach for Ukraine? Which countries are hindering the process?

The USA and Germany are not planning to offer Ukraine invitations to NATO in the near future. These two countries are the main obstacles to Ukraine's accession to the Alliance.

Slovakia and Hungary are also openly opposing our country's membership. This is reported by Suspilne citing its own sources in NATO.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga requested allies to invite Ukraine to NATO during a meeting in Brussels on December 3-4. He explained that this would send a clear signal to Russia, which continues its aggression and has turned Ukraine into a testing ground for its weapons.

Luxembourg has also joined the list of opponents to the rapid accession of our country to the Alliance, as reported by Spiegel. The Foreign Minister of this country, Xavier Bettel, stated that Ukraine's membership could lead to new conflicts. Meanwhile, Luxembourg supports Ukraine's accession to the European Union.

Ukraine insists that it can only accept full membership in NATO, without alternatives. Ukrainian officials emphasize that membership in the Alliance remains the only real guarantee of security.

At the meeting in Brussels, the Ukrainian delegation also requested 19 new air defense systems to protect against Russian attacks in the winter.

Recall that in the fall of 2022, Ukraine submitted an application for expedited NATO membership. In the summer of 2023, at the Vilnius summit, NATO countries simplified the accession process for Ukraine. The new NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte has already stated that advancing Ukraine's membership will be one of his main tasks.

Earlier, Telegraf reported that Zelensky is ready to end the war in exchange for NATO membership. This was regarding the "hot phase" of the war.