Zelensky slams ‘weakness’ of ‘absurd’ Biden stance on NATO

VILNIUS, Lithuania — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky tore into NATO leaders including President Biden Tuesday for not extending NATO membership to his war-torn country — introducing fresh diplomatic drama into the annual gathering of the military alliance’s leaders.

Zelensky, who will join the NATO summit in Lithuania on Wednesday, slammed the reticence as “weakness” and “absurd” — just moments after Biden referred to the development of new non-public language under development for NATO ascension.

“Now, on the way to Vilnius, we received signals that certain wording is being discussed without Ukraine. And I would like to emphasize that this wording is about the invitation to become NATO member, not about Ukraine’s membership,” Zelensky tweeted.

“It’s unprecedented and absurd when a time frame is not set neither for the invitation nor for Ukraine’s membership. While at the same time vague wording about ‘conditions’ is added even for inviting Ukraine.”

Zelensky added: “It seems there is no readiness neither to invite Ukraine to NATO nor to make it a member of the Alliance. This means that a window of opportunity is being left to bargain Ukraine’s membership in NATO in negotiations with Russia. And for Russia, this means motivation to continue its terror. Uncertainty is weakness. And I will openly discuss this at the summit.”

Shortly before the tweet, Biden said during a meeting with NATO secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg in Vilnius that “we agree on the language that you propose, relative to the future of Ukraine being able to join NATO. And we’re looking for a continued united NATO.”

The wording that Biden alluded to was not immediately shared with journalists, though the president said in a CNN interview that aired Sunday that he believes Ukraine is not “ready” for membership.

“I don’t think it’s ready for membership in NATO,” Biden told CNN’s Fareed Zakaria. “I don’t think there is unanimity in NATO about whether or not to bring Ukraine into the NATO family now, at this moment, in the middle of a war.”

“We’re determined to commit every inch of territory that is NATO territory,” Biden noted. “If the war is going on, then we’re all in war. We’re at war with Russia, if that were the case.”

Zelensky’s hard sell on adding his nation to NATO redirected attention from a breakthrough late Monday in which Turkey dropped its opposition to Sweden joining the alliance after months of diplomatic wrangling.

That impasse was expected to be a main sticking point for the conference.

Biden intends to meet with Zelensky before delivering a Wednesday evening speech in Vilnius about the Ukraine conflict.

Vilnius is about 20 miles from the border of Belarus, a close Russian ally that aided last year’s invasion of Ukraine.

Biden will travel to Helsinki, Finland, late Wednesday to celebrate that longtime neutral Russian neighbor’s decision last year to join NATO.

NATO countries including the US have heavily financed and armed Ukraine’s resistance to the more than 16-month-old Russian invasion and Biden has gradually met many of Zelensky’s prior demands, such as agreeing last week to send cluster bombs to aid Kyiv’s flagging offensive, despite a human rights campaign to ban the weapons, which can maim or kill civilians for decades after conflicts end.