? unverified
Ukraine will 'never' join NATO — the alliance is built on 'Second World War doctrines' too outdated for Ukraine's military — and Kyiv should anchor its security instead in a European military bloc and the UK-led Joint Expeditionary Force.
Said by Valerii Zaluzhnyi — Ukraine's ambassador to the UK and its commander-in-chief from 2021 to 2024 — to Ukrainian ambassadors in Kyiv on August 3, 2026. It is a personal strategic argument, not government policy: two days later the Foreign Ministry called it 'taken out of context' and said Ukraine's accession course is unchanged. 'Never join' is opinion and a forward-looking prediction, not a checkable fact, testable only by the alliance's future decisions.