"Thank You" Would Be Nice. ?

[Khandro]

Ben Wallace said Ukraine needs to be more publicly thankful for western help. He revealed at Nato that when he was presented with a list of weapons by the Ukrainian government last year, he reminded them that he was ‘not Amazon’.

[Peter Pedant]

Hi, are you in the UK or Ukraine (just asking because of your user name)?
No he is UK - but has some pretty phenomenal contacts in The East. and is far better informed that most of the London dailies

[Khandro]

Why I think Wallace stated this so brusquely, is that Zelensky has been 'demanding' an absolute route map for Ukrainian NATO membership.

This is totally unrealistic, because one of the premises of membership is that no one can join who is undergoing a current conflict with another country.

We can only guess (& hope) for the result of this war, but if Ukraine were given membership before its conclusion, it would mean an instant conflict between NATO & Russia, in other words WWIII.

[tomus42]

I'm pretty sure I've seen him express gratitude for the aid they've received.

Ukraine is fighting a war against Putin on our behalf. We should probably be thanking them for that.

[jno]

he did, tomus. But I note that the US has also called for more gratitude from Kyiv, so it may be Wallace is just doing Washington's bidding on this. I still think it's crazy undiplomatic, though: if you've got a beef with an ally, sort it out in private.

[Old_Geezer]

IMO probably a barely disguised shot across the bows regarding making demands. Boundaries are important to understand.

[ichkeria]

Zelensky was not asking for Ukraine to join Nato "now".

Ultimately, what matters is that Russia is defeated completely. I would like to hear more of this talk from Nato, not the "help Ukraine to regain as much territory as possibly before negotiations" which doesn't really gel with "no talks about Ukraine without Ukraine" because there can no longer be any negotiations with the current regime.

[ichkeria]

All along Ukraine and Zelensky have been ahead of the curve on this: First it was "ooh we can't do this or send that"
Then: "We're sending this and then that"
Then "But we'd better not do the other"
Eventually "We hereby announce we are doing the other"
That is the frustration. It always happens in the end, very late.

[Khandro]

ichi; //Zelensky was not asking for Ukraine to join Nato "now".//

He has been given very clear signals that when the war is over Ukraine will be fast-tracked into joining.

It is impossible, with the best will in the world, to give a date. Heaven forbid, but this conflict could last for years, & as I've said above, the rules of NATO stipulate that no country may join when it is involved in a war, - the implications of that are obvious.

The whole raison d'être of NATO is really to act as a deterrent.

[ichkeria]

Yes, when the war is over.

You may have noticed that it has been Zelensky’s strategy all along to charm but also to chivvy. To court patronising applause but to be a pain in the neck also.
And it works.
No one understands Russia better than Ukrainians and that is why they alone it seems do not fear them.
We don’t rub up well by comparison.