President Duda: summit decisions bring Ukraine closer to NATO

"The bar was set high, the bets were high. The need to support President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has been clear for a very long time, we raised this Ukrainian expectation that a formal invitation to the alliance be issued for Ukraine," president Duda said at the end of the NATO summit in Vilnius.

"As you know, such a far-reaching decision has not been made, but a whole series of decisions have been made regarding Ukraine, undoubtedly bringing Ukraine closer to NATO. And among those bringing Ukraine closer, the most important one is that the summit confirmed a resignation from the Membership Action Plan (MAP), that Ukraine does not have to go through this stage, so it is saving its time to join NATO," the Polish president added.

An earlier NATO summit in Bucharest in April 2008 cast a long shadow on Ukraine's membership. At the time, NATO declared that both Ukraine and Georgia would join the U.S.-led defence alliance - but gave them no plan for how to get there.

The declaration papered over cracks between the United States, which wanted to admit both countries, and France and Germany, which feared that would antagonise Russia.

"I can only say this - there is no comparison, not any kind of comparison between what happened in 2008 and what we have now. It is a completely different situation in every way," Duda stressed at the press conference.

"Then - and I am telling you this with full responsibility, as I was there with (the then Polish) President Lech Kaczyński, and I remember that summit; I remember that atmosphere, I remember reports that the President was telling us directly from the summit, and I can tell you this - it is a completely different situation, a completely different language that is used to talk about Ukraine today, and a completely different treatment of Ukraine by NATO," he added.

Now, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy is pressing NATO to make clear how and when Ukraine can join after the war triggered by Russia’s invasion is over.

There is widespread agreement among NATO members that the alliance should move "beyond Bucharest", and not just restate Ukraine will join one day. But there are substantial differences between members over how far to go.

This time, the United States and Germany have been the most reluctant to support anything that could be seen as an invitation or a process leading to membership automatically.

Meanwhile, Eastern European NATO members, all of which spent decades under Moscow's control in the last century, are pushing for Kyiv to get a clear road map, with some backing from France.

"Belarus is mentioned five times in the (NATO - edit.) communique with particular emphasis on what we call Brest Gate (a strip of land in Poland and Belarus which is a key strategic point on the east-west axis), which is an area of strategic importance under military threat, an area which will be under a special NATO surveillance and which will be monitored in a special way - this is also translated into the discussion under the security and nuclear umbrella," the Polish head of state said.

"NATO sets up this nuclear umbrella over all the member states, so in the context of announcement about the relocation of (Russian) nuclear weapons (to Belarus), this statement clearly responds to it. It should be read this way: if Russian nuclear weapons were about to be used in any way against NATO members, then NATO would reply in a proper way."

Furthermore, Duda said if Brest Gate was attacked, "approximately 100,000 Allied soldiers would be sent to our territory for immediate defence".

The president also underscored changes in NATO's defence plans and perception of Russia.

"This is the change: NATO defence plans introduce a change from 'deterrence by punishment', meaning we mobilise our forces and respond and defend after we are attacked and our territory is taken, to 'deterrence by denial', which is preventing access. So they (the enemy) would not enter, they would be stopped immediately," Duda explained.

"Today there is no doubt Russia is the aggressor, today Russia is the biggest danger to NATO countries, it's been explicitly stated. It (Russia) wages a war of aggression in Ukraine, and that's why it is called this way by the North-Atlantic Alliance," the president stressed.

The United States and global allies unveiled new security assurances for Ukraine at a NATO summit on Wednesday, designed to bolster the country's defences against Russia over the long haul while Kyiv strives for membership of the alliance.

The prospect of long-term protection from members of the world's most powerful military bloc comes a day after President Volodymyr Zelenskiy decried as "absurd" a refusal to offer an invite or timetable for Ukraine's entry into NATO.

Ukraine has been pushing for rapid membership while fighting a Russian invasion unleashed in February 2022 that has killed tens of thousands and displaced millions.

Instead, a declaration by the G7 grouping of the world's most industrialised countries launched a framework for bilateral negotiations to provide military and financial support, intelligence sharing and a promise of immediate steps if Russia should attack again.

"Our support will last long into the future. It's a powerful statement of our commitment to Ukraine," President Joe Biden said alongside Zelenskiy and leaders of the G7, which is made up of the U.S., Germany, Japan, France, Canada, Italy and Britain.

"We're going to be there as long as that takes."

Swallowing his disappointment over the lack of a membership timetable, Zelenskiy called the outcome a "meaningful success" and followed a flurry of announcements of military aid for Kyiv.

"Today there are security guarantees for Ukraine on the way to NATO," he said. "The Ukraine delegation is bringing home a significant security victory for Ukraine."

Nevertheless, Zelenskiy pressed for more, and said he would raise Ukraine's need for long-range weapons at a meeting with Biden at the summit.

"We can state that the results of the summit are good, but if there was an invitation, they would be ideal," Zelenskiy added.

At a bilateral meeting, Biden promised Zelenskiy the United States was doing everything it could to meet Ukraine's needs and acknowledged Zelenskiy's "frustration" about the scale and speed at which he was receiving support.

"Your resilience and your resolve has been a model for the whole world to see," Biden said. "I look forward to the day when we're having the meeting celebrating your official, official membership in NATO."

"The bad news for you is, we're not going anywhere. You're stuck with us," Biden joked, prompting laughter from Zelenskiy.

Britain, France, Germany and the U.S. have been negotiating with Kyiv for weeks over a multilateral text that would create a broad international framework, encompassing elements including modern advanced military equipment, such as fighter jets, training, intelligence-sharing and cyberdefence.

In return Ukraine, would pledge improved governance measures, including through judicial, economic reforms and enhanced transparency.

NATO, an alliance built around mutual security guarantees - the concept that an attack on one is an attack on all - has carefully avoided extending any firm military commitments to Ukraine, worried it would risk taking it closer to a full-on war with Russia.

Ukraine has been wary of any less-binding security "assurances", given Russia's invasion already trampled the so-called Budapest Memorandum under which international powers committed to keeping the country safe in exchange for Kyiv giving up its Soviet-era nuclear arms.

Speaking earlier alongside Zelenskiy, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Ukraine was closer to the alliance than ever before, and brushed aside new warnings from Russia about the consequences of supporting Ukraine.

"Ukraine has the right to choose its own path", Stoltenberg said, adding: "It is not for Moscow to decide". The security assurances for Ukraine had to be "credible", he said, in order to deter Russia from future attacks.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the security arrangements for Ukraine were not designed to be a substitute for full NATO membership and said the commitments at the summit marked a high point for the West's support for Kyiv.

On Wednesday, Zelenskiy was holding bilateral meetings with the United States, Canada, Germany, Britain, Japan and the Netherlands on the sidelines of the second day of the NATO summit in Vilnius to secure more arms for his counteroffensive.

"More weapons for our warriors, more protection of life for the whole of Ukraine! We will bring new important defence tools to Ukraine," he said on Twitter.

The first sitting of a new NATO-Ukraine Council was also held on Wednesday, a new format designed to tighten cooperation between Kyiv and the 31-nation alliance.

NATO was set up in 1949 to defend allies against any attack from the Soviet Union. Russia's invasion in 2022 brought war back to Europe's doorstep, reviving Cold War-era animosities.

NATO says Ukraine would not be allowed in while at war with Russia, with Washington and Berlin warning against any moves that could put the alliance in a direct conflict with Moscow.

Backers of Ukraine's swift NATO accession in eastern Europe and elsewhere, on the other hand, have bristled at what they saw as a disappointing outcome of the first day of the summit.

Russia, which says NATO's eastward expansion is an existential threat to its own security, swiftly lashed out.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said it was "potentially very dangerous" for the West to give Ukraine security guarantees.

Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy secretary of Russia's powerful Security Council chaired by President Vladimir Putin, said increasing military assistance to Ukraine by NATO was bringing closer a World War Three.