President Volodymyr Zelensky’s antics, and the reactions to his petulant tweets as to why Ukraine should be admitted to NATO, leading into the July 10-11 NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, revealed a great deal about the much vaunted “unity” of that organization. Upon learning that the summit’s final communique omitted any mention of an invitation for Ukraine to join, a furious Zelensky tweeted that “it’s unprecedented and absurd when [a] time frame is not set neither for the invitation nor for Ukraine’s membership. While at the same time vague wording about ‘conditions’ is added even for inviting Ukraine.”
RT reported July 12 that British Defense Minister Ben Wallace was not pleased with such behavior, commenting that “we are not Amazon…sometimes you are asking countries to give up their own stocks. Sometimes you have to persuade lawmakers on [Capitol] Hill in America. You have to persuade doubting politicians in other countries that it is worth it.” Wallace’s U.S. counterparts also complained that Ukraine was treating them like an Amazon store, and Wallace reported that he had personally been subjected to such discourteous treatment by Ukraine as well, noting that he had driven 11 hours to Kiev last June only to be greeted with a list of requests.
U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan made similar remarks publicly in Vilnius, according to RT, saying the American people “do deserve a degree of gratitude from the U.S. government for their willingness to step up [and aid Ukraine] and from the rest of the world as well.” Bloomberg reported that Zelensky’s tweet infuriated the U.S. delegation, who considered it an attempt to get NATO to reconsider its decision not to invite Ukraine to become a member.
