This still a developing story that could be huge for Ukraine. The news today that the NATO meeting currently going on in Ankara, Turkey is all set to announce a new status for Ukraine as a contributor to the alliance’s security:
Ukraine set to gain new status as NATO allies unveil military pledge in Ankara
Kyiv will be recognised as a ‘contributor’ to the alliance’s security
Ukraine is set to take centre stage at the NATO summit in Ankara, where allies will formally recognise the country not only as a recipient of Western support but as a contributor to the alliance’s security.
The shift will come as part of a new multi-annual financial pledge, a showcase for Kyiv’s rapidly expanding defence industry and an invitation to Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukraine’s president, to a dinner of NATO leaders on Tuesday evening.
He is expected to leave Ankara with a new summit pledge in a declaration by allies to provide €70 billion in military assistance to Ukraine this year and again next year.
The pledge was one of the remaining sticking points that diplomats hammered out on Friday during their third and final round of negotiations for the summit declaration to be endorsed by all 32 allies.
What will this new status mean for Ukraine? To wit:
*NATO allies will officially recognize Ukraine not just as a recipient of aid, but as an official “contributor” to Euro-Atlantic security. This elevated non-member status establishes a framework for institutional integration and multi-year financial assistance, though it falls short of the formal accession and Article 5 security guarantees of full NATO
*Ukraine’s current position as a supplicant for aid officially changes with this re-designation … from a petitioner of aid to an invaluable security partner. This is huge when one considers Ukraine’s position a scant two years ago when the Republican leaders of the U.S. House of Representatives held hostage U.S. aid to Ukraine. The ensuing “shell hunger” forced Ukraine to go into a deeper defensive crouch … thereby handing Russia wide swaths of Ukrainian countryside by default.
*NATO, spearheaded by European allies and Canada, has created the “Ukraine Defence Pledge,” a massive financial and military assistance package including over E70 billion (roughly $80 billion) allocated for 2026 alone. This is a huge influx of cash for Ukraine to go shopping or to build whatever it needs to prosecute the war and to keep its economy going. The signal to Putin? Ukraine will not buckle, buddy. Your own Russian economy is failing and you can’t even pay for new recruits, you can’t get supplies to your soldiers in the field and you’re now unable to even give your own people a single gallon of gasoline. A crucial piece of of Putin’s calculus in invading Ukraine was that when push came to shove, neither NATO nor Europe would come to Ukraine’s aid. He figured the “business as usual” crowd would sacrifice Ukraine to continue their trade and profits from Russia.
*Ukraine’s new position as ‘contributor’ to the alliance’s security also deepens its joint production and technological expertise with member states, particularly regarding drone warfare and rapid defense manufacturing, which is already burgeoning at a rapid pace.
*Ukraine, most importantly gains, via this elevated non-member contributor status an institutional anchor and reliable long-term backing without triggering the immediate Article 5. While President Zelenskyy and his allies continue to push for formal accession, full membership remains unfeasible at this time, for whatever reasons, and would require a unanimous consensus among all 32 member states, something that Krasnov has publicly refused to agree to. But on many practical levels, Ukraine becomes de facto NATO if not de jure.
A huge credit goes to President Joe Biden, the one I call JRB, for stepping into the breach and holding things down in order to enable the coalescing of the forces, however slow, which has made the current situation possible. History will account his role as invaluable. In a way, JRB has scored another victory over Krasnov, as now even Krasnov has realized in supporting Putin, he had bet on the wrong dog in the fight. The ever insincere Krasnov is now going along despite his usual self-indulgent castigation of NATO as “mooching off of America”. He may even try, as is his wont to take credit but all who have followed his self-dealing, mendacious and disrespectful treatment of President Zelenskyy and Ukraine know better. JRB, as a true American instinctively knew that siding with a people fighting for their freedom, no strings attached, is always the right thing to do.
ADAPTIVE UKRAINE is going to win this war because it is a war of self-preservation. As President Zelenskyy described it yesterday:
“Frankly we take no pride in this[the war and Ukrainian drones bombing Russian industrial assets],” Zelenskyy said, noting that the war with Russia — now in its fifth year — is one “we did not seek but one we are forced to fight.”
And which he further addressed in his recent open letter to Putin, calling for peace talks:
‘Enough of the war’ — Zelensky throws down gauntlet to Putin in open letter
“Whatever you say about NATO, geopolitics and the Russian language, this war is your personal choice — a war without a real reason. This is how history will remember it.”
https://kyivindependent.com/enough-of-the-war-zelensky-throws-down-gauntlet-to-putin-in-open-letter
Ain’t that the TRUTH.
SLAVA UKRAINI ! PEREMOHA(Victory) !!
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