NATO: Ukraine's path to membership 'irreversible'

Ukraine's path to NATO membership is "irreversible," according to a text prepared for an alliance declaration seen by dpa on Wednesday.

The wording is intended to reassure Ukraine that its "future is in NATO." NATO leaders are expected to formally endorse the text in a declaration during an alliance summit in Washington that began on Tuesday and continues on Wednesday and Thursday.

The text underscores that Ukraine can only join when all current members agree. The United States and Germany in particular are against rushing the process, diplomatic sources within the alliance said. But other NATO member states want to demonstrate that Russia cannot put the brakes on Ukraine joining NATO by waging war against the country.

The text welcomes Ukraine's "concrete progress" on "its required democratic, economic and security reforms," since the last NATO summit in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius a year ago.

NATO has accepted the idea of Ukrainian membership in principle since 2008, while Ukraine has had its NATO membership ambitions enshrined in its national constitution since 2019.