Ukraine’s push to join NATO is gaining momentum because the alliance increasingly sees Kyiv as a military asset, not a burden, an analyst with the Atlantic Council think tank has told TVP World ahead of a NATO summit in Turkey. “NATO needs Ukraine,” said foreign policy expert Diane Francis, arguing that Kyiv has become a military leader in technology and battlefield experience. JOIN US ON TELEGRAMFollow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official. She said there was “no question” in her mind that Ukraine would eventually join the alliance, especially as the United States under President Donald Trump appeared less willing to lead Europe’s defense. Francis added that the next alliance meeting in Turkey on July 7 and 8 will be “probably the most important NATO summit in its history.”
‘They’ve got to get Ukraine into NATO’ Francis said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s visit to Estonia on Wednesday showed that Nordic and Baltic states strongly support Ukraine’s NATO ambitions. She told TVP World that this was not surprising because countries such as Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are on NATO’s eastern flank and understand the threat from Russia, as does Poland. She added that Ukraine could receive more than symbolic support at the summit in Turkey, possibly even including the start of an accession process. “I don’t think there is any doubt in anyone’s mind that they’ve got to get Ukraine into NATO,” Francis said.
