NATO drops key Ukraine membership hurdle ahead of Vilnius summit

NATO lifted a key hurdle to Ukraine’s membership to the Western military alliance as leaders of the bloc gathered for a crucial summit in the Lithuanian capital Monday.

A Western official told AFP that the allies “are set” to drop the Membership Action Plan required for Ukraine’s application to join the alliance.

The breakthrough comes amid rare glimmers of disunity over Washington’s controversial decision to supply cluster bombs to Kyiv.

Ukraine’s foreign minister said the move – which Moscow said would have serious consequences for European security – would shorten Kyiv’s path to NATO membership, even though Ukraine must still undertake reforms before joining.

“NATO allies have reached consensus on removing MAP from Ukraine’s path to membership,” Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba wrote on Twitter.

“I welcome this long-awaited decision that shortens our path to NATO.”

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had voiced hope that Tuesday’s NATO summit in Vilnius would provide a “clear signal” that Kyiv could join the alliance once its war with Russia is over.

Ahead of the meeting, the Western official who spoke on condition of anonymity, told AFP that “MAP is just one of the steps in the NATO accession process … so even with its removal, Ukraine will still need to complete further reforms before joining NATO.”

Keen to expose any hint of friction among the allies, the Kremlin fired an eve-of-summit warning that Ukraine’s membership of the military alliance would have “very, very negative consequences for the entire security architecture in Europe.”

On the battlefront, Ukraine’s counteroffensive ground on, its forces recapturing 14 square kilometers (5.40543 square miles) in the past week amid “heavy fighting” near the Russian-controlled city of Bakhmut, the military said.

And Russian shelling Sunday of a humanitarian aid hub in the frontline Zaporizhzhia region killed four people, the local governor announced Monday.

Cluster concerns

Ahead of the summit, U.S. President Joe Biden met with British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak during a stopover in London on Monday, with British concern over the cluster munitions deal a key subject for discussion.

Britain is one of more than 120 countries that have signed an agreement banning the production, storage, sale and use of cluster bombs, which rights groups say pose a danger to civilian populations long after they are deployed.

Biden said the decision to send the weapons was “very difficult” but Ukrainian forces were “running out of ammunition.”

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan on Sunday played down any rift between the two leaders and in NATO, saying that Biden and Sunak were “on the same page strategically on Ukraine.”

China on Monday denounced the move as ‘irresponsible” and said it could lead to ‘humanitarian problems.'”

“We should fairly manage humanitarian concerns and legitimate military and security needs, and maintain a prudent and restrained attitude towards the transfer of cluster munitions,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson, Mao Ning said.

The summit is also expected to see serious discussions on Sweden’s prospective ascension, firmly denied by Türkiye so far over the Scandinavian country’s policies related to terrorist groups, particularly the PKK.

Sweden’s prime minister will meet Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Monday afternoon in a last-gasp effort to bridge the diplomatic impasse.

President Erdoğan has voiced repeated frustrations with Sweden’s failure to keep its promises to deal with suspected PKK terrorists “roaming free in Stockholm.

Russian shelling

On the ground, an aid hub in the town of Orikhiv in southern Ukraine was hit by Russian shelling, which killed three women and a man, regional governor Yuriy Malashko said on social media.

“They hit a humanitarian aid delivery spot in a residential area … Four people died on the spot: women aged 43, 45 and 47 and a 47-year-old man,” Malashko said, calling the attack “a war crime.”

Ukraine’s prosecutor general said in a statement the strike had occurred one day earlier, at 1.20 p.m. local time (10:20 a.m. GMT) and that 13 people were injured, in addition to those killed.

It released images showing a red-brick two-story building partially collapsed and surrounded by debris and snapped roof beams.