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.
Instead of addressing Europe’s most volatile flashpoint, the summit will include guests from Asia-Pacific allies—Japan, South Korea, Australia, and New Zealand—suggesting NATO is pivoting toward broader, potentially China-focused concerns rather than doubling down on the Ukraine conflict.
Even the symbolic NATO-Ukraine Council, held in recent summits with Zelensky, appears to be scrapped at the leader level. Instead, Kyiv may be relegated to side meetings with foreign and defense ministers—an unmistakable downgrade.
According to ANSA, “almost all of the allies have expressed doubts to Washington” over the exclusion of Ukraine, highlighting a growing divergence between the United States and its European partners. However, Washington seems resolute in its message. Under the shadow of Trump’s influence and widespread war fatigue among American voters, Ukraine is no longer the centerpiece of NATO’s future.
The Italian outlet also confirmed that no final decision has been made, suggesting that the Zelensky camp may still be holding out hope for a last-minute invitation. However, given the summit’s compressed format and the deliberate effort to avoid controversy, such a reversal appears unlikely.
Critics have noted the irony that while Ukraine, a country in an active war on the European continent, is being pushed aside, non-member nations from the Asia-Pacific have been warmly invited.
The shift reflects the growing ambition of NATO to serve as a global military alliance—not merely a defensive pact among Atlantic nations. This globalist rebranding aligns poorly with the needs of member states like Hungary, Slovakia, and others who seek peace in Europe rather than provocations in the Indo-Pacific.
“This is not about Ukraine anymore—it’s about empire-building under the guise of security,” said a senior European diplomat critical of NATO’s current trajectory, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Newly appointed NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, an arch globalist politician, confirmed last week that Ukraine’s NATO membership is not guaranteed as part of any future peace deal. “We never agreed that, as part of a peace deal, there would be guaranteed NATO membership for Ukraine,” he said.
In the words of one NATO insider familiar with the summit’s planning: “There’s simply no appetite anymore to keep pretending that Ukraine will be a member of NATO anytime soon.”
While NATO continues to provide training and military assistance to Kyiv, the denial of summit-level participation signals a clear intent to de-escalate its rhetorical and diplomatic commitments. In plain terms, Ukraine will be increasingly on its own as we move forward in time.
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