• Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says he is submitting an “accelerated” application to join the NATO military alliance.
• Accession to NATO requires unanimous support of all members.
• Questions remain as to whether NATO will welcome Ukraine in.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has stated that his country will submit a “accelerated” application to NATO after Russian President Vladimir Putin declared the annexation of four partially occupied Ukrainian regions.

This week, Russian proxies in the regions held referendums that the international community deemed illegitimate.

“We are taking a decisive step forward by signing Ukraine’s application for accelerated NATO membership,” Zelenskyy said on Friday.

According to him, Ukraine’s NATO membership has always been a red line for Russia.

“Ukraine has always been considered part of Russia’s back yard and thus sacrosanct in some ways – so for Zelenskyy to do this, he knows this is going to wind up Putin, but he has taken this step because I believe he believes there was no other option.”

“The Ukrainian government had to respond to the annexation of 15% of its territory in some way.”

It was unclear what a fast-tracked application would imply, as NATO membership requires the unanimous support of all alliance members.

The question of whether NATO will accept Ukraine remains unanswered.

“There are certain criteria, one of which is that aspirant nations must be committed to peaceful resolution of territorial disputes,” Challands explained.

“Of course, there is a war in Ukraine. There are territorial disputes that, for the time being, cannot be resolved peacefully. That is a difficult obstacle for Ukraine to overcome. But perhaps allowances will be made.”

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