By now, everyone that’s paying attention has come to the same conclusion about the war in the Ukraine: Russian forces have the decisive upper hand, and if Kiev doesn’t sue for peace soon, the likelihood is that it will lose even more of its territory – may even cease do exist.
This is a hard truth for the Western apparatus, but it has steadily been gaining ground, as the hyped counteroffensive has not yielded any gains, and the military capabilities of NATO countries begin to get overextended with the looming possibility of conflict in Taiwan, in Korea, in Africa…
And so it happened that a top NATO advisor revealed a bit too much of what was in his mind, strayed from the official narrative, and was forced to dial down his comments and apologize.
CNBC reported:
“NATO official Stian Jenssen on Wednesday said comments he made the previous day regarding Ukraine ceding land in order to gain membership in the military alliance were a ‘mistake’.
Jenssen said during a panel debate in Arendal, Norway, “I think that a solution could be for Ukraine to give up territory, and get NATO membership in return,” Norwegian newspaper VG reported Tuesday. He also said it was up to Ukraine to decide when and on what terms it negotiates.
He told VG in a follow-up interview Wednesday, ‘My statement about this was part of a larger discussion about possible future scenarios in Ukraine, and I shouldn’t have said it that way. It was a mistake’.”
This amount of truth was bound to cause a commotion in Kiev. Presidential advisor Mykhailo Podolyak, in a very Ukrainian way, called the whole concept of giving up territory for NATO membership ‘ridiculous’.
The Guardian reported:
“But Jenssen did not walk back the idea that a land-for-Nato-membership deal could ultimately be on the table. If there were serious peace negotiations then the military situation at the time, including who controls what territory, ‘will necessarily have a decisive influence’, the chief of staff said.
‘Precisely for this reason, it is crucially important that we support the Ukrainians with what they need’, the official continued as he sought to emphasize that Nato members remained behind Ukraine.”
Kyiv says any land-for-Nato deal ‘would reward Russian aggression’, but that’s exactly what will happen sooner or later.
Ukraine has called for ‘a restoration of its internationally recognized pre-2014 borders’, which would include, besides the newly annexed Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporozhie and Kherson, also the Crimean peninsula. With the present situation on the ground, that’s not a feasible option at all.
“Jenssen was careful in his initial comments to stress that he was simply airing an idea and that ‘it must be up to Ukraine to decide when and on what terms they want to negotiate’, reflecting Nato’s position that no peace settlement with Ukraine should be agreed without Ukraine.
But this was not enough for Kyiv, unhappy that Jenssen, an important figure and close ally of Stoltenberg, was even discussing the proposition in public.”