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According to him, the problem is that NATO is guided by outdated doctrines.
Joining NATO is a major political goal for Ukraine, and it is even written into the nation’s constitution as a strategic objective.
But even though both NATO and Ukraine have worked on how to integrate Ukraine into the NATO alliance for years, it will never happen.
It sounds like a statement coming from the Kremlin, but it is actually from a former commander-in-chief of Ukraine.
“We will never join it”
Valerii Zaluzhnyi now serves as Ukraine’s ambassador to the United Kingdom. Before taking the diplomatic post, he led the nation’s armed forces for three years. He sees a problem.
Behind the scenes, frustration has been building for years. He argued that traditional pathways to Western integration no longer match the reality of active combat.
“I personally worked to ensure that we adopted NATO standards, and every year, I heard stories about how we were just about to join NATO. Unfortunately, we will never join it,” Zaluzhnyi said, according to The Kyiv Independent.
The remarks came during a high-level meeting of Ukrainian ambassadors.
Outdated rules
The former top general focused on technical gaps dividing current combat tactics from Western systems. In his view, international military rules lag far behind modern warfare.
“It is impossible for the Ukrainian Armed Forces, given their current level of development, to join an organization that is guided by World War II doctrines,” he said.
Modernizing those international structures will take time. According to Zaluzhnyi, it would take the alliance “about 12 years” to adopt new standards “to at least reach half the level of the Russian Federation.”
So what comes next? Instead of waiting for Western partners to update their methods, he called for fresh regional security arrangements.
A new direction
“Ukraine… will align itself with blocs and alliances that will likely form,” he said. “Most likely, we will be talking about a European military security bloc.”
Meanwhile, President Volodymyr Zelensky has offered a slightly different path forward. He previously indicated that Kyiv could postpone joining the alliance if it receives strong security guarantees from the United States and European partners.
Zaluzhnyi left his military post with high public approval. As political analysts expect him to run in Ukraine’s next presidential election, his words signal a massive shift in how the country views its future.
A poll conducted on July 21-22 even showed that Zaluzhnyi has the highest trust rating among Ukrainians at 72%. Zelensky’s rating sits at 59%.
