Ukraine's Ambassador to the United Kingdom Valeriy Zaluzhnyi believes that NATO's approaches, formed during the Cold War, need to be adapted to modern security challenges and the nature of the current war.
The diplomat expressed this opinion in a column for Interfax-Ukraine, reports Ukrinform.
The former Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine noted that the current stage of the war is determined not by territorial gains, but by the endurance of society, the effectiveness of state governance, and international support, aimed not only at assistance but also at physically constraining Russia and shaping the future security environment.
"Seeking a way out, we again and again return to something that would make our lives easier... and we find NATO. This magical military organization sometimes inspires hope, sometimes spurs development, but still remains almost the only international military-political alliance," Zaluzhnyi said.
According to him, Ukraine is grateful to NATO for its help, but the Alliance, over 13 years of war in the center of Europe, has not taken any combat action, nor responded to repeated provocations against both the bloc itself and the countries it protects.
In Zaluzhnyi's opinion, today, in times of rapid scientific and technological progress, NATO is going through very difficult times: in fact, the world's largest military-political organization remains ready for the war of the past.
In this context, the former Commander-in-Chief noted that the main problem is that this organization was created during the height of the Cold War, when the goal was to avoid a nuclear conflict with the USSR.
"All this was clearly observed throughout 2023, when the main thing was not to cross some red line drawn by history itself. The Cold War has long ended. Only NATO remains unchanged, built on a strategy of conflict avoidance. That is why Ukraine is still not a member of the alliance, despite the obvious advantages of its membership. And that is why we see unity around Ukraine, but not unity against Russia. That is why this war continues," Zaluzhnyi believes.
In his conviction, such a NATO approach has no future, either technically or politically, "not because NATO is bad, but because it is an alliance of the old world that no longer exists."
"The security system of the new world depends on those who are saving an entire country in the center of Europe, and those who are ready to unite everyone on this path. And if the first are us, Ukrainians, then who is ready to be the second — I hope we will see soon," the Ukrainian ambassador summarized.
As Ukrinform reported, on July 7-8, Ankara is hosting the 36th NATO summit. On July 7, a defense industry forum was held as part of the summit, where a number of contracts for joint production of weapons worth tens of billions of dollars were announced.
