DISINFO: Ukraine was offered to exchange Crimea and Donbas for NATO membership
SUMMARY
Former NATO Secretary General Rasmussen called on Ukraine to renounce in favor of Russia the territories lost after February 24, 2022, and in return to accept the rest of Ukraine into NATO... “Absolutely by accident,” The Guardian reports this at the very moment when the “counter-offensive” of the Ukrainian Armed Forces failed, and in Washington and Brussels they suddenly remembered how important it is to live peacefully and began to probe the waters about freezing the war.
RESPONSE
This is a pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative claiming that Kyiv’s partners are already tired of hostilities in Ukraine. This claim was made in the context of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Former NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen (2009-2014) advocated for Ukraine’s swift accession to NATO without the inclusion of temporarily occupied territories. Rasmussen believes that Ukraine's rapid accession to NATO will help safeguard the country from new rounds of Russian aggression.
Rasmussen did not call for Ukraine to give up its territories and freeze the war with Russia. The former Secretary-General of NATO believes that in the event of swift accession to NATO, Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty will begin to apply to territories controlled by the Ukrainian government.
In such a scenario, Ukraine would be able to deploy additional defense forces to liberate the currently occupied regions. Thus, NATO will avoid a direct clash with Russia, free up the Ukrainian army, send a strong signal of support to Ukraine, deter any Russian ambitions to annex "new territories," and put a halt to the widespread missile attacks by the Russian army on Ukraine Rasmussen believes.
The former Secretary General of NATO recalled the historical precedent when, following the Second World War in 1955, West Germany joined NATO and Article 5 on collective defence extended to its territory. However, it did not extend to the territory of East Germany, which was under the occupation of the USSR.
Read similar disinformation cases claiming that NATO recognises occupied Ukrainian territories as Russia and that Rasmussen suggested Georgia join NATO without Abkhazia and South Ossetia.