“The great danger,” he continued, “is that if this war continues and we continue to threaten to bring Ukraine into NATO, what we are doing is giving the Russians a greater and greater incentive to take more of Ukraine and to make Ukraine more of a dysfunctional rump state so that if it ever did become a part of NATO, it would not be a serious threat to Russia. So what NATO should do right now is make it clear that Ukraine is not coming into NATO and that Ukraine is on its own to work out a security relationship with Russia.”
To no one’s surprise, NATO seems intent on pursuing the exact opposite of what Mearsheimer counsels. Only last week it was reported that NATO secretary-general, Jens Stoltenberg, is seeking to create a $100 billion fund to continue to arm Ukraine. Still more, the ‘Mission to Ukraine’ plan would grant NATO operational control over the Ramstein Group, the US-led consortium that oversees military supplies to Ukraine. Such a move, according to one unnamed diplomat who spoke to the Financial Times, said such a move would be “crossing a Rubicon. Nato will have a role in coordinating lethal support to Ukraine.”