Volodymyr Zelenskyy criticises ‘absurd’ lack of timetable for Ukraine to join NATO as he arrives at summit in Vilnius
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has criticised the “absurd” absence of a timetable for his country to join NATO as leaders met at a summit in Lithuania.
US President Joe Biden described the gathering as a “historic moment” and said Washington agreed with a proposal, yet to be released publicly, to outline a path for Ukraine’s eventual membership of the alliance.
However, Mr Zelenskyy, who is in Vilnius for the summit, expressed disappointment at how the negotiations were playing out.
“We value our allies,” he wrote on Twitter but added that “Ukraine also deserves respect”.
“It’s unprecedented and absurd when timeframe is not set neither for the invitation nor for Ukraine’s membership,” Mr Zelenskyy said.
He added: “Uncertainty is weakness. And I will openly discuss this at the summit.”
The public flash of anger from the Ukrainian president, who has been lauded in the West as a hero for his leadership, could renew tensions in Vilnius just as they had begun to subside.
Mr Zelenskyy later addressed a crowd at a concert being held alongside the conference in Lithuania’s capital, telling a crowd full of people waving Ukrainian flags that “NATO will make Ukraine safer and Ukraine will make NATO stronger”.
Zelenskyy’s last-minute brinkmanship was not enough to produce a significant breakthrough
A well-timed Tweet by Ukraine’s president condemned as “absurd” any failure by NATO allies to offer his country a clear timeline for membership to join the club.
It was posted just as leaders of the 31 member states began a crunch meeting in Lithuania on Tuesday to finalise the wording of an offer around membership, with division on whether or not to give Kyiv the formal invitation it has lobbied hard for.
In the end, however, the last-minute brinkmanship by Volodymyr Zelenskyy was not enough to produce a significant breakthrough.
The end result appeared to be more of a fudge, with a reaffirming of NATO’s belief that Ukraine’s future is as part of the alliance but without offering any kind of timeline.
Jens Stoltenberg, the NATO chief, did his best effort to describe the outcome, contained in a communique as a “strong package for Ukraine and a clear path towards its membership”.
Mr Zelenskyy will be sure to offer his views at a dinner with NATO leaders on Tuesday evening and when he meets with them at the summit on Wednesday.
Offering a sense of the internal discussions that pre-empted the announcement, Petr Pazel, the Czech president, said his country and a majority of other allies were in favour of Ukraine’s accession to start as soon as its war with Russia is over.
“However, there are still some allies who have some concerns,” he told Sky News earlier in the day.
A European diplomatic source identified Germany and the United States as having been resistant to going too far on the language.
Ultimately, NATO is an alliance that works by consensus – one of its core strengths. But it means the group can only move as fast as its most resistant member.
The job now will be to overcome Ukrainian disappointment and focus on supporting its war effort as until that is over any hope of membership to NATO is a pipedream.
Responding to Mr Zelenskyy’s comments, NATO secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg said a timeline for Ukraine’s membership in the alliance has not been set out as it is “conditions-based”.
Speaking at a news conference this afternoon, Mr Stoltenberg said there has “never been a stronger message from NATO at any time”.
The alliance chief said members had agreed a “substantive package” to move Ukraine closer and were sending a “strong political message with the language on membership”.
“If you look at all membership processes there have not been timelines… they are conditions based, have always been,” Mr Stoltenberg told reporters in Vilnius.
On Monday evening, the night before the summit opened, Turkey withdrew its objections to Sweden joining the alliance, a step towards the unity Western leaders have been eager to demonstrate in the face of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The deal was reached after days of intensive meetings, and it is poised to expand the alliance’s strength in northern Europe.
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Turkey ratifies Sweden’s NATO accession
“Rumours of the death of NATO’s unity are greatly exaggerated,” Jake Sullivan, the US national security adviser, told reporters on Tuesday.
According to a joint statement issued when the deal was announced, Mr Erdogan will ask Turkey’s parliament to approve Sweden joining NATO.
Rishi Sunak and Joe Biden were among the attendees in Vilnius
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban is expected to take a similar step.
The outcome is a victory for Mr Biden, as he has described NATO’s expansion as an example of how Russia’s invasion has backfired on Vladimir Putin.
Finland has already become the 31st member of the alliance, and Sweden will become the 32nd. Both Nordic countries were historically non-aligned until the war increased fears of Russian aggression.
Because of the deal on Sweden’s membership, “this summit is already historic before it has started”, Mr Stoltenberg said.
Read more:
Ukraine has ‘window of opportunity’ this year to take back territory
Turkish president backs Sweden’s entry to NATO
Zelenskyy will be ‘relieved’ by NATO summit offers
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters NATO’s expansion is “one of the reasons that led to the current situation”.
“It looks like the Europeans don’t understand their mistake,” Mr Peskov said. He warned against putting Ukraine on a fast track for NATO membership.
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“Potentially it’s very dangerous for the European security, it carries very big risks,” Mr Peskov added.
Mr Biden began Tuesday by meeting Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda, where he emphasised his commitment to transatlantic cooperation.
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NATO head on Ukraine’s accession
“Nothing happens here that doesn’t affect us,” he told Mr Nauseda. The White House said Mr Nauseda presented Mr Biden with the Order of Vytautas the Great, the highest award a Lithuanian president can bestow. Mr Biden is the first US president to receive it.
Mr Biden and Mr Erdogan were scheduled to meet on Tuesday evening, and it was unclear how some of the Turkish president’s other demands would be resolved.
He has been seeking advanced American fighter jets and a path towards membership of the European Union.
The White House has expressed support for both, but publicly insisted that the issues were not related to Sweden joining NATO.
“I stand ready to work with President Erdogan and Turkey on enhancing defence and deterrence in the Euro-Atlantic area,” Mr Biden said in a statement on Monday.
At least 14 people have been killed in an area of Taiwan popular with tourists after Super Typhoon Ragasa lashed the island nation, with Hong Kong and mainland China braced for impact.
The powerful storm – the strongest in years – has forced thousands to flee their homes, with flights cancelled and schools and businesses shuttered as about 70cm (28 inches) of rain has fallen on eastern areas.
At least four more people were reported to have been killed in the Philippines, where nearly 700,000 people were affected by the super typhoon in the main northern region of Luzon.
The deaths in Taiwan were reported in the eastern Taiwanese county of Hualien, which is popular with tourists.
At least 129 people are missing after a town, Guangfu, was flooded by a deluge from a barrier lake which burst its banks on Tuesday afternoon.
Around 60 million tonnes of water was released, the Taiwanese government said, the equivalent of a major reservoir in southern Taiwan.
A man stands near a military vehicle on a road filled with mud brought by flooding in Hualien, Taiwan. Pic: Reuters
Taiwan’s fire department said all the fatalities and missing people are from Guangfu.
One resident, a postman who gave his family name as Hsieh, told Reuters news agency the water hit like a “tsunami” which swept his car into his living room.
Late on Wednesday morning, a new flood warning sounded in Guangfu, where shouts were heard from residents and rescuers of “the flood waters are coming, run fast”.
Elsewhere, Dama, a village of around 1,000 people, has been completely flooded.
Its chieftain, Wang Tse-an, told Reuters many locals are still stranded there, adding: “It’s chaotic now. There are mud and rocks everywhere.”
Regions across Taiwan have sent at least 340 soldiers to Hualien to help rescue efforts.
In Guangfu, troops operating from an armoured personnel carrier to avoid the thick mud on the streets went door-to-door
handing out water and instant noodles.
Ragasa is set to hit China’s Guangdong province, where more than 370,000 residents have been evacuated, on Wednesday.
Hong Kong’s storm level is at its highest level of 10 as people reported being woken by fierce winds in the early hours.
Parts of a pedestrian bridge’s roof were blown away, hundreds of trees were knocked down across the city and more than 30 injured people were treated at hospitals.
A video that showed waves of water crashing through the doors of a hotel and flooding its interiors went viral in the financial hub, where warnings of hurricane-force winds of well over 120mph have been issued.
Donald Trump disparaged the Russian military and backed Ukraine to retake all its occupied territory in an astonishing about-turn on the war.
In a post on Truth Social, made after talks with Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the United Nations in New York, the US president said a return to “the original borders from where this war started is very much an option”.
“I think Ukraine, with the support of the European Union, is in a position to fight and WIN all of Ukraine back in its original form,” he wrote.
Mr Trump said “time, patience, and the financial support of Europe and, in particular, NATO” could help Kyv win back lost territory, and said Russia was in “economic trouble”.
He said Moscow had been “fighting aimlessly” for three-and-a-half years – and had it been a “real military power” it would have defeated Ukraine in less than a week.
“This is not distinguishing Russia. In fact, it is very much making them look like ‘a paper tiger’,” he added.
Mr Zelenskyy told Sky News US correspondent Mark Stone it was a “big shift” from his US counterpart.
He later admitted he was surprised by Mr Trump’s comments, telling Fox News’ Special Report he has a better relationship with the president than before.
Read more: Why emboldened Trump has changed his stance on Ukraine
Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the United Nations. Pic: Reuters
Trump’s patience not ‘infinite’
Mr Trump also appeared to pour cold water on his hopes of persuading Vladimir Putin to sign a peace deal.
Speaking to Emmanuel Macron at the UN summit, he said their relationship had turned out to be meaningless.
Just last month, Mr Trump rolled out the red carpet for the Russian president at a summit in Alaska – in a push to expedite the war’s conclusion.
Before returning to the White House, he repeatedly claimed he’d be able to end the conflict in 24 hours.
Speaking at the UN Security Council, his secretary of state, Marco Rubio, admitted ending the war had proven an “extraordinary challenge”.
He said Mr Trump had “worked on it tirelessly”, but warned Russia his patience is not “infinite”.
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Rigby to Trump: Was Putin’s Alaska invite a mistake?
The US president has previously suggested Ukraine will never be able to reclaim all the territory Russia has occupied since seizing the Crimean Peninsula in 2014.
Ukraine has lost large areas of land in the east of the country.
In the Donetsk region, Russia now controls about 70% of the territory. Kyiv’s forces have been pushed back to four cities analysts have dubbed the “fortress belt”.
Moscow has partly annexed three other regions, too: Luhansk in the east, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson further west.
The situation in Ukraine on 19 September
Trump tells NATO to shoot down Russian jets in its skies
Meanwhile, Russia appears to be provoking its neighbours to the west. Last week, Estonia said three Russian MiG-31 fighter jets violated its airspace for 12 minutes before Italian NATO jets escorted them away.
The week before, about 20 Russian drones entered Polish airspace, prompting NATO jets to shoot some of them down and the alliance to beef up its defence of Europe’s eastern flank.
While talking to Mr Zelenskyy at the UN, Mr Trump was asked by reporters whether he thought NATO should shoot down any Russian planes that entered NATO airspace.
“Yes, I do,” Mr Trump replied.
On Truth Social, he said the US would continue to supply weapons to NATO, and it was for the alliance to “do what they want with them”.
Read more:
Trump makes full-throttle assault on UN
Has Trump ‘ended seven wars’?
Mr Trump also suggested the Russian people are not aware of “what is really going on with this war”.
He added: “Most of their money is being spent on fighting Ukraine. Putin and Russia are in big economic trouble and this is the time for Ukraine to act.”
He has called on European and NATO allies to increase economic sanctions on Moscow.
In a joint statement following the president’s comments, G7 foreign ministers said discussions were ongoing about additional economic sanctions on Russia.
As U-turns go, it’s a game-changer.
Donald Trump has pivoted from pressing Ukraine to surrender territory to suggesting it’s able to win all its land back.
This is the man who threw Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy out of the White House in February and brought Russia’s Vladimir Putin in from the cold in Alaska last month.
So, why the handbrake turn from framing negotiations as the most practical outcome to a new-found confidence in Ukraine, when supported by its European neighbours and NATO?
Trump held talks with Zelenskyy at the UN. Pic: Reuters
Firstly, it could be the military and economic reality on the ground. Russia’s paying a high price for the war, both in manpower and finances.
Trump has acknowledged that Moscow is in “big economic trouble”, which strengthens the case for Ukraine prevailing with Western help.
Ukraine’s resilience has also shifted perceptions – the impossible now looking possible if allies remain committed.
Secondly, it could be the influence of allies. European leaders flew to Washington en masse last month to urge caution in dealings with Putin.
European NATO members have stepped up aid to Ukraine, further weakening the President’s rhetoric about America carrying the financial burden.
He’s suddenly aligning himself with European countries, endorsing the shooting down of Russian planes violating their airspace.
Thirdly, it could be more about domestic politics, with the president under bipartisan scrutiny at home over his “softly, softly” approach to Russia.
A tougher national defence posture could help him consolidate support among Republicans, while also appealing to moderates, who regard the defence of Ukraine as a test of national credibility.
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Zelenskyy on Trump’s ‘big shift’ over Ukraine
Trump versus the world
There’s another factor worth considering – Trump’s negotiating tactic. He has a long record of changing position to gain leverage.
Talk of compromise might have been the strategy for getting Ukraine and Russia into talks, but with Russia showing no willingness to compromise, his calculation shifting back to the restoration of Ukraine.
Whatever the reason for his change of heart, and whether it translates into US policy, the last three days have shown an emboldened Trump.
From his declaration of “hate” for his opponents during a memorial service for Charlie Kirk, to his sensational claim to have “found an answer on autism”, to his derision of the UN, he’s unfiltered right now.
Place him in front of a microphone or online, and it’s Trump versus the world.
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