In a revealing development that underscores shifting geopolitical tides, the US is reportedly opposing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s invitation to the NATO summit scheduled for late June in The Hague, Netherlands, according to multiple diplomatic sources cited by Italy’s ANSA news agency.
If confirmed, this marks the first time since the start of Russia’s military incursion in February 2022 that Zelensky will be absent from a NATO summit—either in person or virtually. His exclusion, in all likelihood, comes as a surprise to many European allies, with one Dutch official describing it bluntly to the NOS broadcaster as “a diplomatic disaster for the Netherlands that no speaker could justify.”
Yet, to many conservatives, nationalists, and anti-globalist observers weary of endless military entanglements, Zelensky’s sidelining may signal a long-overdue shift away from the globalist war footing that has dominated the collective West’s policy toward the Russo-Ukrainian war.
The upcoming NATO summit is being tightly choreographed to avoid offending former—and possibly future—US President Donald Trump, a well-known critic of NATO’s freeloading members.
The agenda, reportedly, has been trimmed to a single session focused on increasing military spending and adopting new defense capability objectives. Notably, Ukraine’s NATO membership—a subject that has fueled Western adventurism and provoked Russian security concerns—is not on the agenda.
Hellbound and Down 