Ukraine Should Join NATO Even If Russia Occupies Its Land, Czech President Says

Czech President Petr Pavel has issued a new statement which seeks to pressure NATO to speed up Ukraine’s admission into the Western military alliance. Most analysts consider that Ukraine’s accession will take years, possibly even decades, given of course that there is an active hot war unfolding in the country.

Pavel is calling for Ukraine to join NATO even if it doesn’t retake all of its territory. He says the alliance shouldn’t be overly concerned that it is ground zero of an ongoing conflict with Russia. “I don’t think that full restoration of control over the entire territory is a prerequisite,” Pavel told Czech newspaper Novinky a Právo.

“If there is a demarcation, even an administrative border, then we can treat this administrative border as temporary and accept Ukraine into NATO in the territory it will control at that time,” he added.

Czech Republic’s President Petr Pavel, via AP

He cited as an example West Germany, which was allowed to joint NATO in 1955, before it ultimately was able to unify with Soviet-held East Germany in 1990.

“Although part of Germany was occupied by the Soviet Union … the rest was accepted into NATO,” the Czech leader said.

“So I think that there is both technically and a legal solution to allow Ukraine to join NATO without bringing NATO into conflict with the Russian Federation.”

But this still ignores the fact the Article 5 means Ukraine’s entry into NATO would automatically trigger a major war, requiring the alliance’s 32 member countries to rush to the fight with Russia. Below is what the article 5 common defense clause says in full:

Article 5

“The Parties agree that an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all and consequently they agree that, if such an armed attack occurs, each of them, in exercise of the right of individual or collective self-defence recognized by Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations, will assist the Party or Parties so attacked by taking forthwith, individually and in concert with the other Parties, such action as it deems necessary, including the use of armed force, to restore and maintain the security of the North Atlantic area.

Any such armed attack and all measures taken as a result thereof shall immediately be reported to the Security Council. Such measures shall be terminated when the Security Council has taken the measures necessary to restore and maintain international peace and security.”

Yet even now, despite Ukraine not being a member, NATO has been sucked ever deeper into the conflict through the constant providing of more sophisticated weapons, including main battle tanks and F-16s, but also advisers and intelligence officers.

Use of Western weapons in the war grows riskier as US-supplied HIMARS now pummel Russia’s Kursk region…

The great risk of invading Kursk – Prof Glenn Diesen on Al Jazeera

– Is Ukraine trading its best troops and NATO military equipment for temporary control over territory with little strategic significance?https://t.co/V3FmnGuba0 pic.twitter.com/NTkaCH17WS

— Glenn Diesen (@Glenn_Diesen) August 22, 2024

The Kremlin too already views it this way – that NATO is increasingly a direct party to the war. President Putin has even warned that should F-16s supplied to Kiev begin conducting missions from external airbases outside Ukraine, these bases are fair game for potential attack by Moscow forces, even if they are in NATO territory.