
© US President Joe Biden • Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky at NATO summit in VilniusUS President Joe Biden • Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky • NATO Summit in Vilnius
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is
planning to install a permanent special envoy to Kyiv as a new envoy post. This has to do with
"institutionalizing" some of "the bilateral support that has flowed to Ukraine", says US ambassador to Kyiv, Julianne Smith. At the same time, last week,
Biden made it (again) abundantly clear that Ukraine is not to become a NATO member.One should keep in mind that back on 21 December 2022, during a
joint press conference in Washington, when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited the US, Biden had already been
clear enough on the limits of Washington's willingness to be there for Ukraine. The American's replies must have been a cold shower to his Ukrainian counterpart:
when asked about sending more powerful weapons to Kyiv, Biden said that doing so "would have a prospect of breaking up NATO", and "breaking up the EU and the rest of the world." Moreover, according to him, his Atlantic Alliance allies were
"not looking to go to war with Russia. They're not looking for a third world war." Then, he went on to "reassure" the Ukrainian president right next to him, by telling that
"as I said, Mr. President, you don't have to worry — we are staying with Ukraine as long as Ukraine is there", in an unintendedly amusing remark that inadvertently almost paraphrased the famous cruel joke about Americans being willing to fight "to the last Ukrainian".
Comment: New script, new threats, redirected war machines...grab the popcorn and don't bypass the credits.