Ukraine Joining Nato And/Or The Eu....

[Kardashev]

Clearly the Russians are concerned with Ukraine joining NATO but could they just join? What criteria would they need to be accepted?
Obviously the EU has clear acceptance criteria, does anyone know if Ukraine a) want to join and b) are, theoretically at least, able to reach acceptance?

[ichkeria]

I am not sure if you were bding wholly serious

The issue really isn't really about NATO at all

As long as Ukraine wants to look to the west, Putin will rage against it.
Whether Ukraine is in NATO or not. And as I said before, realistically there is little prospect of that.

[ichkeria]

That was to Kardashev

[Khandro]

ichi: As usual you bring more heat than light to the subject.

//As long as Ukraine wants to look to the west, Putin will rage against it.//

But not all of Ukraine want to join into the west, millions in the west of the country speak Russian & ARE effectively Russian.

[ichkeria]

Not true.
No country of any great size looks at the world with the same eye (do the people of the Scilly Isles and those of the Shetlands, those in Enniskillen and those in Essex, for example?)
But it is a complete myth that there are large swathes of E Ukraine and beyond that want to be part of Russia.
Just as it is wrong to think that the so-called "people's republics" of Donetsk and Luhansk, were ethnic, cultural or linguistic break-aways. They were no such thing: they are small gangster fiefdoms controlled from Moscow.

[Khandro]

ichi // I don't know from where you receive your information, probably from the BBC & assorted American-fed media.

I happen to be married to a historian, who specialises in European history, I haven't read anything like the amount she has, but I get distillations in conversation.

I found last night this very good Wikipedia site, which I think gives just about as impartial a view of the past & present as is possible at this moment. It doesn't portray Vladimir Putin as a saint, but it doesn't vilify him as the pantomime villain you do either.

I hold no particular brief for the East or West, I just seek a clear honest view of the situation overall.

Why not take a look ?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021%E2%80%932022_Russo-Ukrainian_crisis#:~:text=On%201%20December%202021%2C%20Russia,violated%20the%20Minsk%20peace%20agreements.

[ichkeria]

I'm afraid I am not married to a historian khandro but I know all about the country including the recent conflicts.

Others can judge whether there is more heat than light in what I say, but there are a lot of miscinceptions about the situation in Ukraine and all I try to do is present things as I see them in a rational way without casting aspersions or dark hints about motive, ethnicity or lefty rags etc :)
All of which are just side shows.