‘It was a mistake’: NATO official U-turn from controversial Ukraine comments

NATO Chief of Staff, Stian Jenssen, admitted on Wednesday that his controversial comments suggesting that Ukraine may gain membership in the alliance in exchange for ceding some territory to Russia was a “mistake.”

Jenssen told Norwegian newspaper Verdens Gang: “My statement about this was part of a larger discussion about possible future scenarios in Ukraine, and I shouldn't have said it that way. It was a mistake.”

He added: “If, and I emphasized if, you get to the point where you can negotiate, the military situation on the ground will be absolutely central, and will have a decisive influence on how a possible outcome of this war will look.”

He praised the Ukrainian’s efforts in the war: “One must remember that at the outbreak of war there was a concern that Ukraine could collapse within weeks and days. It has not happened at all. They have shown a heroic effort against the superior power. The topic now is how much territory Ukraine is able to take back.”

A day earlier Jenssen told the same publication: “I think that a solution could be for Ukraine to give up territory, and get NATO membership in return.”

Ukraine’s government quickly condemned the official for even suggesting Kyiv give up an inch of its sovereign land to the Russians.

The adviser to the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Mykhailo Podolyak slammed the suggestion as “ridiculous” and said: “Trading territory for a NATO umbrella? It is ridiculous. That means deliberately choosing the defeat of democracy, encouraging a global criminal, preserving the Russian regime, destroying international law, and passing the war on to other generations.”

The Foreign Ministry spokesman said that any talk of Ukraine joining NATO in exchange for giving up part of Ukrainian territories was “absolutely unacceptable.”

He said: “We have always assumed that the Alliance, like Ukraine, does not trade territories. The conscious or unconscious participation of NATO officials in shaping the narrative regarding the possibility of Ukraine's giving up its territories plays into the hands of Russia.”

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