Did Zelensky Offer Russia That Ukraine Would Never Join NATO?

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Executive Summary

It has been proposed that Zelensky offered Russia that it would agree never to join NATO.
We analyze this claim.

Introduction

Many claims have been distributed in the western media that have made it appear that Russia is irrational and Ukraine is reasonable. One of these claims is that Zelensky offered Putin the concession that Ukraine would never join NATO.

Checking the Claim

I could not find even a single article that covered the topic of Zelensky offering Russia that it would not join NATO.

This video is dated around a week and a half before the invasion. In it, Zelensky is emphatic that Ukraine seeks to join NATO and that it seeks to join the EU. Furthermore, he states that while he has been cautioned not to publicly seek to join NATO as it could lead to negative repercussions with Russia, he essentially disregards this view.

Zelensky states that it is “our decision to take anyway.” However, he has to know that Putin has repeatedly said that Russia will not allow Ukraine to join NATO. That should have made it obvious to Zelensky that it was not simply Ukraine’s decision to take.

This video would seem to contradict the claim that Zelensky made this offer, especially since I cannot find any articles that even address this story.

The Implications of Spreading the False Rumor of the Offer

If Zelensky made this offer, and Putin invaded anyway, this would make Putin seem unreasonable, which appears to be the point of this fake story.

Many pro-Ukrainian supporters have also claimed that false information should be allowed for a good cause (which is the cause of Ukraine). They do this at the same time while discussing the importance of censoring misinformation and critiquing Russian propaganda. This claim is likely considered a “harmless little white lie” that can only lead to more good than harm.

Western Media is Creating and Supporting False Information

This video explains how as the west is aligned with Ukraine, it is producing large amounts of false information in favor of Ukraine. This is the information they are told to produce by the US DOD and State Department. In this case, the media is doing its job too well because it now has journalists asking US politicians to do things that would bring the US into a war with Russia.

Conclusion

This is a fake story; it looks suspiciously like something planted and then repeated to make Putin seem less reasonable.