Joining NATO Is Stumbling Block in Ukraine’s ‘Victory Plan’

News Analysis At last year’s NATO summit in Lithuania, allies agreed to defer Ukraine’s membership bid, at least temporarily, in favor of loosely defined “security agreements” between Kyiv and individual member-states. But as Kyiv’s battlefield situation deteriorates, the prospect of Ukraine joining NATO—in the not-too-distant future—appears to be back on the table. “NATO is treading an exquisite balance between sustaining Ukrainian defense while seeking to de-escalate the conflict and minimize the risk of direct conflict with Russia,” Andrew Corbett, a lecturer at the Defense Studies Department at King’s College London, told The Epoch Times. “This is, ultimately, incoherent, since it simply prolongs Ukraine’s agony,” Corbett said....