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Russian propaganda reports that Scholz has rejected Ukraine’s accession to NATO. However, further consultations are still pending.
Berlin/Moscow – Russia’s President Wladimir Putin had justified the attack on Ukraine in 2022 with numerous reasons. Among them was the violation of Russia’s security interests. Since the NATO had already admitted several states of the former Soviet Union, Russian concern grew about Ukraine joining. This would have posed an immediate threat to Russia, according to the Russian narrative. Russian media have now published a sentence by Chancellor Olaf Scholz in which he rejects the currently discussed accession of Ukraine to NATO – but that is not entirely true.
Russian media: Scholz comments on Ukraine’s NATO accession
Russian media such as the news agency RIA Novosti or the Russian online medium sputnik are currently sharing a statement by Scholz in which he talks about Ukraine joining NATO: “You know the decisions, that is not an immediate issue. And probably not for the next 30 years either.” According to Russian propaganda, this is a recent statement by the Chancellor. In reality, however, Scholz was reporting a conversation with Putin before the outbreak of the Ukraine war.
The Chancellor had previously reported on a meeting with Putin before the Russian invasion of Ukraine during a “citizens’ dialogue” on Sunday (26 May) as part of the celebrations for the 75th anniversary of the Basic Law. At the time, Putin is said to have told Scholz that the reason for the escalation of the conflict was the planned admission of Ukraine into NATO. Scholz then told the citizens what he had said to Putin at the time about Ukraine’s admission into NATO. However, Russian media left this part out of their reporting.
NATO summit in July: Ukraine is unlikely to receive an invitation to join
The situation is different now. Since the Russian war of aggression, many NATO states have been in favour of Ukraine joining NATO. However, it is still unclear when this will happen. There is unlikely to be an official invitation to join NATO at the NATO summit in Washington in July. “We do not expect Ukraine to receive an invitation to join NATO, but we believe Ukraine will receive significant support in its efforts to win the war,” James O’Brien, the US State Department’s European affairs director, told reporters on Friday (May 24).
The Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky does not expect his country to join NATO as long as Ukraine is still at war with Russia. “In my personal opinion, we will only be in NATO after we have won,” the head of state said at the end of April at a discussion event with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg in Kiev. (vk/dpa)
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