According to Kaliniak, the EU should not interfere in the common defense, it should be commanded by the Alliance, because two command structures cannot simultaneously effectively ensure the defense of states.
“Either we are in NATO, and then we don’t need this, or we are in Europe,” he noted.
At the same time, Kalinyak emphasized that Ukraine will never be in NATO and there will be a problem with staying in the EU. According to him, the group of states helping Ukraine, the so-called coalition of the willing, did not offer Kyiv anything.
“She sent soldiers? She didn’t do that. Of course not,” the Slovak minister concluded. He also added that Ukraine in 2022 had a chance to end the war that was unleashed by the aggressor country Russia.
Context
Ukraine intensified cooperation with NATO after the occupation of Crimea and the start of Russian aggression in Donbass in 2014. The Constitution of Ukraine enshrines the course towards gaining full membership in the Alliance. A year after the full-scale Russian invasion began, in July 2023, NATO member countries eased the way for Ukraine to join the bloc, but did not provide an official invitation to Kyiv.
The declaration of the NATO summit, held July 9–11, 2024 in Washington, states that “the future of Ukraine lies in NATO.” Separately, during the summit, NATO agreed to create a NATO Security Assistance and Training Unit for Ukraine (NSATU) to better coordinate the provision of military equipment and training to Ukraine.
On April 5, 2025, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte confirmed that Ukraine’s path to NATO is irreversible. However, US President Donald Trump believes that Ukraine will not be able to become a NATO member.
