Ukraine's former top commander Zaluzhnyi says NATO membership impossible, cites WWII doctrines
Valery Zaluzhnyi, Ukraine's ex-military chief and now ambassador to Britain, told a meeting of ambassadors that the country's armed forces cannot meet the alliance's standards, calling NATO's doctrines outdated.
Zaluzhnyi's assessment
Valery Zaluzhnyi, Ukraine's former commander-in-chief and now ambassador to the United Kingdom, told a gathering of Ukrainian ambassadors on Monday that the country has no prospect of joining NATO. Speaking as quoted by the news site Evropeiska Pravda, he said Ukraine does not meet the alliance's military standards and that its armed forces are not developed enough to join an organisation still guided by World War II doctrines.
I know NATO really well. For about 12 years, I personally worked on making sure we met NATO standards, and every year I heard tales about how we would join NATO any day now. Unfortunately, we will never actually join.
He added that Ukraine lacks the technology already in use by NATO members, including anti-missile defence and space capabilities. The strategic goal of NATO and EU membership is enshrined in Ukraine's constitution, but Kyiv has acknowledged that not all current members would welcome it. Russia has rejected out of hand any notion of Ukrainian membership.
Political backdrop
Zaluzhnyi was dismissed as top commander in 2024 after disagreements with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy over the conduct of the war with Russia, now in its fifth year. Opinion polls place him roughly level with Zelenskyy in voter trust. His successor as armed forces chief was also removed last month, alongside former Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov. The remarks come as Zelenskyy carries out a wider government reshuffle, including the dismissal of Ukraine's ambassador to the United States, Olga Stefanishyna, announced by decree on Monday. The move had been expected for weeks and coincides with the replacement of the prime minister and defence minister, as Kyiv lobbies Washington hard.
EU accession and German proposal
Separately, EU officials do not expect Ukraine to join the bloc before the middle of the next decade, and certainly not before the end of Russia's war, according to Die Welt. The central question is security. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz recently proposed granting Ukraine a special status during accession talks, which would allow Kyiv to participate in EU summits and ministerial councils without voting rights during a transition period.
Frontlines largely static
On the battlefield, Ukraine's frontlines saw little change in July, with Russian forces gaining less than 40 square kilometres, according to an AFP analysis of data from the Institute for the Study of War. That follows a gain of 30 sq km in June and is a sharp drop from a year earlier, when Russian advances averaged 405 sq km per month. The few Russian gains were made in the Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Sumy regions. Ukrainian forces gained 29 sq km in the Dnipropetrovsk region, continuing a trend that began in December 2025. Kyiv has also been carrying out effective strikes deep into Russia and on occupied territory.
