European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said EU is opening the door for Canada to become the first associate member of the 27-member bloc.
Trump threatened to impose tariffs on the European Union or halt trade with the bloc entirely if it proceeds with the plan.
The proposal signals a significant shift in the EU, which had been lukewarm to Germany’s proposal in May of an associate membership for Ukraine.
NATO? Or the EU?
eu
And NATO.
Russia using potential NATO membership as an excuse to invade Ukraine is just that, an excuse. Ukraine was turning west, and Russia couldn’t accept that.
i mean finland had extensive security guarantees from nato countries, eu article 42.7 and a strong military, while russia was fighting in ukraine
if those weren’t a thing, there would’ve been problems, like in ukraine
Ukraine had the Budapest Memorandum and a strong military. Didn’t help much, especially when one of the guarantees refused to help and the other being the perpetrator.
What triggered the war IMHO was when Russias puppet Yanukovych was removed from power. It was then clear that Ukraine wanted to move west, and Russia wouldn’t have any of that.