Ukrainian president was offered long-term security promises, but given no concrete timeline on joining Nato.
Volodymyr Zelensky was running hot ahead of his sit-down with Nato leaders on Tuesday evening.
The Ukrainian president had been angered earlier in the day by what he said was an “absurd” reluctance to give his country a clear timeline on membership.
That outburst in turn riled the partners who have funnelled billions of dollars of weaponry and aid into Ukraine’s defence against the Russian invasion – the US had been given no warning before Zelensky unleashed his attack on social media.
Over dinner in Vilnius, with US President Joe Biden back at his hotel, the other leaders delivered a clear message to Zelensky, according to one person who was present.
You have to cool down and look at the full package, Zelensky was told. He had, after all, been given a renewed commitment to eventual membership and new security guarantees from the Group of Seven (G7) nations. By the next day, the message appeared to be sinking in.
“Whether we like it or not, people want to see gratitude,” UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace told reporters the following morning. “You’re persuading countries to give up their stock” of weapons and ammunition, he added.
This account of the behind-the-scenes wrangling is based on interviews with more than a dozen diplomats and officials involved in the summit who asked not to be named discussing private conversations.
Nato leaders were trying to thread a needle on Ukraine’s membership bid when they arrived in Vilnius: they were seeking language that looked like progress and that Ukraine could sell as progress but fundamentally didn’t leave them any closer to getting dragged into a war with nuclear-armed Russia.
Added to that, they were dealing with a Ukrainian government operating under the intense pressure of the war and whose expectations weren’t always in line with political reality as seen from the alliance.
“I understand the Ukrainians’ frustration,” Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna said in an interview.
In the days running up to the summit, diplomats sympathetic to Ukraine had been insisting that Kyiv was making realistic demands on the issue of membership.
