German chancellor Olaf Scholz has rejected Ukraine’s request to swiftly join Nato, dismissing a key pillar of the “victory plan” presented by Volodymyr Zelensky to Western leaders earlier this month.
In comments that The Telegraph understands have irritated Nato allies, Mr Scholz bluntly ruled out Ukrainian membership in the near future, insisting that no country can join the Western alliance while it is at war.
He also repeated his refusal to provide Kyiv with Germany’s long-range Taurus missiles and expressed fears that stronger support of Ukraine risked dragging his country into a direct conflict with Moscow.
“It is important to realise that a country at war absolutely cannot become a member of Nato… everyone knows that, there is no disagreement on this subject,” Mr Scholz told German public broadcaster ZDF in the first frank and public criticism of the victory plan by a Nato leader.
He added that Nato had a “perspective” on Ukraine’s long-term plan to join the Western alliance, but stressed that “beyond that, there is currently no need for any new decision”.
It comes after Mr Zelensky launched a diplomatic charm offensive in London, Paris, Berlin and Rome earlier this month, laying out the key aspects of his victory plan to national leaders. The plan was also presented to Joe Biden, the US president, at a White House meeting in September.
It is understood that the victory plan includes a request for Nato to present Kyiv with an invitation to join the alliance, as well as an end to restrictions on the use of long-range Western weapons deep inside Russia.
An invitation would not automatically allow Ukraine into Nato, but it would send a clear statement of intent to Vladimir Putin about the West’s resolve in defeating Russia. Mr Scholz, however, told ZDF he was concerned that “an invitation is normally quite quickly linked to membership”.
‘War in Ukraine a political football’
While Mr Scholz claimed his position was shared by all Nato allies, a Nato source said the overall tone of the interview was unhelpful, appeared naive and was possibly using the war in Ukraine as a political football to help the chancellor get re-elected in elections next year.
“[It is] misguided… many allies do see the need for Nato membership as a real deterrent for further Russian misadventures. Most Nato allies are very clear-sighted on this; as well as the fallacy to think that Putin will sue for the enduring peace without having achieved his war aims,” a Nato source said.
They added that Mr Scholz’s constant fretting about the risk of triggering a direct conflict between Russia and Nato was illogical as “one cannot avoid that which is already taking place”.
The source also expressed frustration that Mr Scholz “for electoral purposes keeps banging the peace dream” even as Russia massively increases arms spending, deploys North Korean troops and continues to wage hybrid warfare on Germany – including plots to assassinate German business leaders and burn down arms factories.
At a meeting in Berlin last week, Sir Keir Starmer said the West was “absolutely united in our resolve” to support Ukraine, while Mr Biden vowed to support Kyiv “as long as it is necessary”.
But a report by the Wall Street Journal earlier in September, citing senior US officials, claimed the White House was “unimpressed” with the plan as it lacked detail and strategy.
There appears to be little appetite in Washington and other Western capitals to take any major decisions on the Ukraine war in the near future as the US election is just weeks away.
Mr Scholz is under intense pressure at home to appease German voters who are increasingly weary of the war in Ukraine, with the Kremlin-friendly AfD party gaining more and more influence in the former Communist East.
Rafael Loss, a German defence and politics expert at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said Mr Scholz was likely trying to project an image of himself as a “besonnen” leader ahead of federal elections next year, referring to the German word for prudence and clear-headedness.
“That’s the framing the chancellery has been using since shortly after the beginning of the war, and the SPD [Mr Scholz’s centre-Left party] used it during the European elections in June,” Mr Loss said.