NATO Will Offer Ukraine a ‘Bridge’ to Membership, Hoping That’s Enough

NATO will offer Ukraine a new headquarters to manage its military assistance at its upcoming 75th anniversary summit in Washington, officials said, an assurance of the alliance’s long-term commitment to the country’s security that has been heralded as a “bridge” to Kyiv’s eventual membership.

President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine — along with some Central European nations — had fervently hoped his country would be offered membership negotiations by NATO at the summit, which runs from July 9 to 11.

Instead, the alliance will announce that it has agreed to set up a mission in Germany to coordinate aid of all kinds to Ukraine over the longer term, American and NATO officials said. The move is intended to send a strong signal of allied commitment, both to Kyiv and to Moscow, which hopes the West will grow tired of supporting the war.

Because the mission will be under NATO’s auspices, it is designed to function even if Donald J. Trump, a sharp critic of the alliance and of aid to Ukraine, wins the U.S. presidency in November.

The Biden administration and NATO officials came up with the idea as a way to give something solid to Kyiv at the summit even as they maintain the time is not right for Ukraine to join.

It is not just that the country is still at war, which could make NATO an active participant in the fighting. President Biden and Chancellor Olaf Scholz of Germany have said that Ukraine must make important reforms to reduce corruption and improve its democracy and rule of law.

The hope is that the mission and the commitment it represents will satisfy Mr. Zelensky and lead to a smoother summit than the last one, a year ago in Vilnius, Lithuania, where he made his unhappiness clear when Ukraine was not offered a firm timeline for membership negotiations.

The new mission will bring under one umbrella the activities of the current “capabilities coalition” of countries that provide various aspects of military aid to Ukraine, like air defenses, artillery, F-16 fighter jets, arms and training.

It will also coordinate training of Ukrainian military personnel in allied countries and the longer-term bilateral security agreements that different countries have signed with Ukraine, according to the United States and NATO officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because details of the plan have not yet been announced.

But NATO countries are all on board with establishing the mission, the officials said, and it will be announced at the summit meeting.

Previously, aid for Ukraine has been given mostly on a country-by-country basis, with less concern over its efficiency or even for Kyiv’s most pressing needs. Gathering the essential strands of aid and training under one command is aimed at streamlining the flow and making it more coherent, officials briefed on the plan said.

Called the NATO Security Assistance and Training for Ukraine, or NSATU, the mission will work to reduce duplications and complications from the various kinds of weaponry sent to Ukraine.

One example, U.S. and NATO officials said, is the recent French offer to donate an unspecified number of Mirage fighter jets when Ukraine is already struggling to train pilots and put F-16s in the air. The Mirage, a similarly sophisticated plane, requires different training, parts and maintenance that may strain Ukrainian capabilities.

The mission will be based at a U.S. military facility in Wiesbaden, Germany, and headed by a three-star general — likely an American — reporting directly to the top NATO and American general in Europe, Gen. Christopher G. Cavoli.

Placing the mission under General Cavoli’s NATO hat will protect it from any political change in Washington, said Ivo Daalder, a former American ambassador to NATO who has been briefed on the plan.

The new mission will also incorporate an existing United States group stationed in Wiesbaden to handle weapons shipments and personnel training.

And it will run parallel to the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, which is under American leadership and coordinates weapons deliveries by about 50 countries to Ukraine, well beyond NATO’s own 32 member states. Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III, who set up the contact group, insisted that it remain for now under American chairmanship, the officials said.

The group will not officially be called a “mission” because of objections from Germany, which wanted to avoid the implication that it and NATO were at war with Russia, Mr. Daalder said, even though Russia already spins its invasion of Ukraine as a war of “self-defense” against an ever-expanding and hostile NATO.

“It’s an effort at Trump-proofing and a deliberate effort to bring Ukraine and NATO closer together to support Ukraine today as well as into the future,” Mr. Daalder said.

The Biden administration has not commented publicly on the details of the plan. But Jake Sullivan, the U.S. national security adviser, said that the summit would show that allies are taking “concrete steps” to bring Ukraine closer and to ensure it has a “bridge to eventual membership.” At the NATO summit last year, the alliance also refused to offer Ukraine a fixed timeline and clear path to membership or to allow negotiations on membership to begin. Mr. Zelensky was displeased, but the alliance’s overall position will not change at this summit.

NATO’s unwillingness to open accession negotiations with Ukraine or provide a fixed timeline for doing so is in contrast with the European Union, which on Tuesday opened accession negotiations with both Ukraine and Moldova.

Those negotiations are expected to take several years, but they mark an important and symbolic moment for both countries — Ukraine, enduring a Russian invasion, and Moldova, which fears it could be next.

Jens Stoltenberg, the outgoing NATO secretary general, spoke vaguely of the plan for the new mission after a meeting of alliance defense ministers on June 14. He told a news conference it would be announced at the Washington summit and would “put our support to Ukraine on a firmer footing for years to come.”

Calling the new mission “a key summit deliverable” and a further step “on Ukraine’s path to NATO membership,” he emphasized that “these efforts do not make NATO a party to the conflict, but they will enhance our support to Ukraine to uphold its right to self-defense.”