“We are not giving up”: UWC president on NATO summit results

There is a consensus among NATO leaders that Ukraine should become a member of NATO. This was stated by Paul Grod, President of the Ukrainian World Congress, on the air of the national 24/7 newscast.

“It is not a question of whether Ukraine will become a member of NATO, Ukraine will be a member of NATO; the question remains when it will happen and under what conditions. Therefore, it is significant that we do not give up and continue to fight and prepare for the next [NATO] summit in Washington in 2024,” the UWC President said.

Ukraine did not receive an invitation to the NATO summit in Vilnius because the member states of the Alliance, particularly the United States of America and Germany, fear provoking Russia. 

“The United States of America is probably using this as a card for future negotiations with Putin,” Paul Grod explained.

The main issue is the terms of support and guarantees for Ukraine from NATO countries. “The word “guarantees” is very painful for us, so we want them to be binding – to provide economic and military support to Ukraine,” the UWC President said.

To convince skeptics of Kyiv’s readiness to become part of the Alliance by the next summit, Ukraine must show success on the battlefield, Grod believes.

“In their speeches, both President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the head of the President’s Office, Andrii Yermak, very frankly said: “We hope that by this [the next NATO summit] we will win and liberate our territories, and then we will become full members of NATO.” This would be an ideal option, we have to work on it,” the UWC president concluded.