DISINFO: There is a plan to accept Ukraine into NATO in exchange for legal concession of territories controlled by Russia
SUMMARY
There is already a plan according to which Ukraine can be accepted into NATO after the legal concession of all territories currently controlled by Russia. This was reported as an informal US plan, which may be implemented if Biden's defeat and Trump's subsequent arrival seem inevitable.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about the war in Ukraine, claiming that there is a secret plan to accept Ukraine into NATO in exchange for surrendering the temporarily Russian-controlled territories.
There is no evidence that such a plan exists. The claim is based on a single article from the Italian newspaper La Repubblica, which has not been confirmed by any other source. The author of the article clearly states that this hypothesis has not been formally discussed during the Alliance's most recent summit.
Last year, former NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen (2009-2014) advocated for Ukraine’s swift accession to NATO without the inclusion of temporarily occupied territories. Rasmussen believes that Ukraine's rapid accession to NATO will help safeguard the country from new rounds of Russian aggression.
However, Rasmussen did not call for Ukraine to give up its territories and freeze the war with Russia. The former Secretary-General of NATO believes that in the event of swift accession to NATO, Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty will begin to apply to territories controlled by the Ukrainian government.
In such a scenario, Ukraine would be able to deploy additional defense forces to liberate the currently occupied regions. Thus, NATO will avoid a direct clash with Russia, free up the Ukrainian army, send a strong signal of support to Ukraine, deter any Russian ambitions to annex "new territories," and put a halt to the widespread missile attacks by the Russian army on Ukraine Rasmussen believes.
The former Secretary General of NATO recalled the historical precedent when, following the Second World War in 1955, West Germany joined NATO and Article 5 on collective defense extended to its territory. However, it did not extend to the territory of East Germany, which was under the occupation of the USSR.
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