Selenskyj plädiert für eine NATO-Mitgliedschaft der Ukraine, die Europäer suchen nach einer anderen Lösung

**Antonio Costa, the new president of the European Council, and Kaja Kallas, the new head of European diplomacy, visited Kyiv on Sunday, as soon as they took office. NATO foreign ministers are due to meet in Brussels on Tuesday and Wednesday.**

As they await the initiatives that US president-elect Donald Trump has pledged to take to resolve the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, Ukrainian authorities believe that the country’s future depends on NATO. “An invitation for Ukraine to join Nato is a necessary thing for our survival,” said Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday, December 1, as he welcomed the new European foreign minister, [Kaja Kallas](https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2024/11/14/kaja-kallas-tells-meps-she-will-support-eu-aid-to-ukraine-until-victory_6732805_4.html), and the new president of the European Council, [Antonio Costa](https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2024/06/28/portugal-s-antonio-costa-next-president-of-the-european-council_6676003_4.html), visiting Kyiv on the first day of their terms of office.

With NATO foreign ministers due to meet in Brussels on Tuesday and Wednesday, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha sent a letter to each country urging them to “endorse the decision to invite Ukraine to join the [North Atlantic] Alliance.”

In addition to this “invitation,” Zelensky recently raised the idea of involving NATO forces in the supervision of a possible ceasefire. “If we want to stop the hot stage of the war, we should take under the NATO umbrella the territory of Ukraine that we have under our control,” he suggested in an interview with British television channel Sky News. In exchange, Kyiv could consider “recovering the other part of its territory through diplomatic channels” at a later stage. Excluding any permanent territorial concessions to Russia, Zelensky reiterated that Ukraine must regain its 1991 borders. Moscow currently controls around 18% of its territory.

**Read the full article here:** [**https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2024/12/03/zelensky-pleads-for-ukraine-nato-membership-europeans-look-for-another-solution_6735017_4.html**](https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2024/12/03/zelensky-pleads-for-ukraine-nato-membership-europeans-look-for-another-solution_6735017_4.html)

You can’t join NATO with an active border dispute, which was partly why Russia invaded in 2014. Until there is peace, Ukraine can’t join. Otherwise Ukraine joining is an automatic Article 5.