Ukraine’s winding path to NATO | Andreas Umland | TVP World

Patience is said to be a virtue, but this is not always so in international relations. As Western governments and the general public are growing impatient to hear about the long-awaited Ukrainian counteroffensive, Kyiv itself is less and less willing to hear about delays with respect to Ukraine’s path towards NATO membership. And it is not difficult to see why. After the failure of the Budapest Memorandum, and the subsequent vague approach towards Ukraine’s membership bid, President Zelenskyy is not willing to take any chances – so much so that he recently said if there is no genuine committment towards letting Ukraine join the alliance, then it makes no sense for Ukraine to take part in the Vilnius summit at all. What can be done to convince Western partners that, in this case, there is one way forward – and that is with Kyiv being provided with genuine security guarantees which NATO membership involves? We discussed these issues with our guest today, Dr. Andreas Umland from the Stockholm Center for Eastern