Stian Jenssen, chief of staff to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg in Brussels, believes that one solution to the war in Ukraine could be for Ukraine to gain NATO membership in exchange for ceding the territory to Russia. Unacceptable, replies Ukraine.

In a panel discussion in Arendal yesterday, August 15, Jenssen said that one needs to have some thoughts on what the security situation should be for Ukraine when the war ends, writes VG.

– It is important that we discuss our solution, Jenssen said on Ukraine's future NATO membership after this summer's Vilnius summit.

Asked whether it is NATO's opinion that Ukraine should cede land in order to achieve peace with Russia and future NATO membership, Jenssen stressed that the discussion of possible post-war status is already ongoing and that the issue of ceding of the territory to Russia is raised by others.

– Right now the solution can only come from the battlefield. And you will probably have to threaten some form of central Russian intervention to change the calculus in Moscow. As it stands now, one must be prepared to prolong this conflict. There is no political solution in sight, according to Janssen. And on the cession of Ukrainian territories he says:

– This in and of itself is not about right or wrong. So what is right here is quite obvious, and that is that Ukraine has the right to control and recover all Ukrainian territory, including Crimea, and what Russia took in 2014. But this is only part of the problem, it is then necessary to evaluate the real control of one's own state. And Ukraine could end up in a dilemma where it has to consider that it may not be able to take back all of the territory. We may come to a situation where neither we nor Ukraine accept the Russian occupation, but this is a de facto situation.

And the NATO option subtly enters this discussion on control

– But it is clear that if at some point we were to reach negotiations, which are not there now, then it is clear that this question of territory, who controls what, must become a central part of it. I also believe that guarantees for future security should also be part of this discussion. Subtly letting it be understood that if we discuss about

Ukraine itself reacts strongly to Jenssen's statements. On Facebook, Oleg Nikolenko, spokesman for the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, writes that the statements are completely unacceptable.

What we learn from these words:

  • that in the end a negotiated solution will be found based on the hypocrisy of diplomacy, that is, on the implicit acceptance of what everyone now explicitly rejects;
  • that NATO leaders, especially if they're not the supreme elite, had better learn not to talk about things bigger than themselves.