Joining NATO is still a distant dream for Ukraine, but it has taken another path, that is, joining the European Union. The EU is now considering Ukraine's accession process.
Previously, Ukraine had always wanted to join NATO, but now that the war had begun, Ukraine certainly could not become a member of NATO right away. At this time, Ukraine offered to become a member of the European Union, and the EU quickly responded that it was "no problem" and immediately began to consider the series of procedures.
In fact, first of all, we have to give you a science popularization, what is the EU and NATO doing? The European Union is a political and economic alliance in Europe, while NATO is a purely military organization led by the United States that includes Europe and North America. So, Ukraine can take both steps at the same time.
There are also members who are members of NATO but not members of the European Union. Turkey, for example, feels that it is nato's second-largest military and should become a member of the European Union. But the EU's response is that it also has a threshold, and Turkey does not meet the EU's standards and cannot join. For this, Turkey is not less angry with European countries.
Well, the EU is not actually what Ukraine is proposing to join at the moment, in response to the war situation. In 2007, when the European Union began to expand, Ukraine was determined to join the European Union and made some applications.
However, from the perspective of the situation at that time, how huge the market of the European Union was, and in 2007, Ukraine's economy was not very good to tell the truth, so it was very much hoped that with the help of the big market of the European Union, it would be able to pull the Ukrainian economy.
So at that time, when this matter was being discussed in Ukraine, the Ukrainian people were very supportive and hoped to join the European Union soon. At that time, Russia was certainly also opposed to Ukraine's accession to the European Union, but the opposition was far less strong than Ukraine's entry into NATO.
We can imagine that the reason why Russia is most afraid of Ukraine joining NATO is that if the United States one day deploys missiles in Ukraine, then in seven minutes, it will hit Russia, which is an extremely real threat to Russia. From the perspective of the EU as a political and economic organization, Ukraine's economic upgrading, or the political aspect and the EU's emphasis on some human rights and freedoms, have little impact on Russia's immediate and actual survival.
Therefore, although Russia shouted against it, it did not take some actions in a particular hurry. For example, Russia can now fight this battle in order to prevent Ukraine from joining NATO, and Russia did not take some very severe measures to stop it at that time.
It is worth mentioning that by 2013, Ukraine itself suspended its application to join the European Union, why? First, at that time, there was a former Ukrainian prime minister, Tymoshenko, known as the "gas princess", who felt that the EUROPEAN Union was directing Ukraine's internal affairs and had intervened politically.
The second point is that Ukraine has been knocking on the door of the European Union, knocking for a long time without knocking, and the European Union said that "Ukraine simply cannot reach my threshold", that is, it has extremely high requirements for Ukraine. Ukraine, as for its part, feels that it cannot join at all, and it is better to pause.
Of course, at this juncture of the Russo-Ukrainian War, the situation is different, and the EU's attitude towards Ukraine is actually a demonstration of Europe's great unity in opposing Russia.
So, even now during the war, the EU should consider that if Ukraine wants to join, it can quickly arrange and start some urgent procedures. But ukraine's biggest difficulty and obstacle at present is the security of the country and the integrity of its territorial sovereignty. This can only be somewhat useful if it is with NATO, and the EU can only give some symbolic support.
Moreover, at this time, the lightning absorbed Ukraine into the Eu, mainly to make Russia feel very ugly, Russia opposes Ukraine and the West to approach, and Europe is close, then, from the EU's standpoint, they feel that not only NATO is now providing Ukraine with a large number of lethal weapons, the EU is now also welcoming Ukraine to join, mainly disgusting Russia.
In the whole issue of maintaining European security, in fact, the EU has always been excluded, which is also a hidden danger within Europe. Some time ago, the EU, whether it was the president of the council, or some other senior EU officials, including the president of the European Commission, were also complaining that Ukraine is a European country, including the whole time to solve the situation in Ukraine, why is there only NATO, no EU? Why has Putin never had a good talk with the senior leaders of the European Union, but only looks at how NATO gives Russia a documented security guarantee.
Therefore, the EU has always felt that it is marginalized, so by pulling Ukraine to join the EU during the war, in fact, the EU itself wants to brush up its own existence in terms of European security maintenance.