What is Nato and will Ukraine become a member?

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said he is willing to drop his country’s bid to join Nato in exchange for Western security guarantees, in a major concession as part of ongoing peace talks to end Russia’s invasion.

Kyiv had previously insisted that Nato membership was one of its red lines, as it would deter Moscow from invading again in the event of a peace deal.

He made the concession just hours before talks with President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff, German chancellor Friedrich Merz and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner in Berlin. It follows a flurry of diplomatic activity in the past three weeks which have produced several drafts of a peace agreement, but no alignment on key issues such as territory.

Responding to journalists’ questions before the talks, Zelensky said that since the US and some European nations had rejected Ukraine’s push to join Nato, Kyiv expects the West to offer a set of guarantees similar to those offered to the alliance members.

“These security guarantees are an opportunity to prevent another wave of Russian aggression,” he said. “And this is already a compromise on our part.”

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Is Ukraine part of Nato?

Ukraine is not currently part of Nato, but Zelensky has consistently called for his country to be welcomed into the alliance.

Mr Putin insists – without any basis – that Russia and Ukraine are really one nation. Through his act of aggression against Ukraine, he appears to be seeking to reintegrate the country into his vision of a greater Russia, just as he annexed the Crimean Peninsula in 2014.

For its part, Ukraine wants the defensive protection of the alliance as part of its bid for recognition as a free western democracy, shielded from the malign influence of Moscow but Trump has insisted Kyiv cannot be a member.

Without Ukraine being part of Nato, the alliance’s member states, including Britain and the US, are not obliged to commit troops or come to its aid militarily, which is why those states and the other major European powers are reluctant to allow Kyiv into their company for now, as to do so would risk a much more widespread war in Europe.

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A number of British troops are, however, currently stationed in fellow signatory states Estonia and Poland as part of the organisation’s peacekeeping duties and the UK has carried out extensive military training with the Ukrainian armed forces since 2015 and has pledged to continue supplying Ukraine with weapons to counter Russian attacks during the present conflict.

Nato’s official position is that membership is open to “any other European state in a position to further the principles of the treaty and to contribute to the security of the North Atlantic area”.

The present concern for the alliance is that, if Russia succeeds in conquering Ukraine, it could continue its westward expansion and perhaps seize other outliers like Georgia and, indeed, set a precedent for other global superpowers to follow, perhaps emboldening China to take Taiwan, for instance.

Is Poland part of Nato?

Nato is a political and military alliance of North American and European countries forged in the aftermath of the Second World War in the hope of avoiding future bloodshed and hostilities between nations through the realisation of three specific goals: deterring Soviet expansionism, preventing the revival of militant nationalism and encouraging European political integration.

Poland is a member of Nato and has been since 1999. It invests more than 4 per cent of of its GDP on defence, more than any other member of the alliance.

Nato has its headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, and its current secretary general is Mark Rutte.

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Its 31 member states are obliged by Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty of 4 April 1949 to come to the aid of any fellow signatory in the event that they should come under attack from a foreign power.

In its own words: “Nato is committed to the peaceful resolution of disputes. If diplomatic efforts fail, it has the military power to undertake crisis-management operations.”

How was Nato formed?

Originally born of the Treaty of Dunkirk signed by Britain and France on 4 March 1947, Nato was created to contain any future military threat from a revived Germany or the USSR at a time when the Marshall Plan was attempting to bring economic deliverance to a continent still in recovery from a war that had killed 36.5 million people.

Nato was soon expanded to include Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg and then the US, Canada, Portugal, Italy, Norway, Denmark and Iceland.

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Holding firm throughout the Cold War and evolving its approach in response to such tense diplomatic episodes as the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Vietnam War and the USSR’s invasion of Afghanistan, the alliance was given a new lease of life with the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.

It gradually added former Soviet satellites states to its ranks: first the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland in 1999 and then Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia in 2004.

The most recent additions to the alliance were North Macedonia in 2020 and Finland in 2023.