Another NATO country publicly opposes Ukraine's membership

Mr. Fico, who is recovering from an assassination attempt, posted a video on July 11, reacting to a draft final communique from the annual NATO summit that reportedly mentioned Ukraine’s “irreversible path” to joining the U.S.-led military bloc.

“I understand Ukraine’s desire,” Mr. Fico said in the video. “But NATO membership would pave the way for World War III. Although to be fair, we wouldn’t be too far from that scenario even if Ukraine weren’t a member, seeing as some advanced democracies are adding fuel to the fire,” he added.

Prime Minister Fico said that Slovak representatives attending the Washington conference were instructed to emphasize two conditions for Ukraine to become a member. Kiev must meet all the conditions set by the bloc and all member states must accept. “However, as I have said many times, the Smer Social Democratic Party and lawmakers in the Slovak Parliament will not agree to Ukraine becoming a member of NATO,” he stressed.

On July 10, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto told reporters in Washington that Ukraine's membership in the bloc was "clearly unacceptable" because it would "presage direct conflict between Russia and NATO."

The US-led military bloc is expected to pledge at least 40 billion euros ($43.3 billion) in military aid to Ukraine over the next year and endorse the country’s “full integration into the Euro-Atlantic,” but an invitation to NATO will only be made “when allies agree and conditions are met,” according to a draft of the summit.