NATO AND THE RUSSIAN INVASION OF UKRAINE: DIFFERENT REACTIONS TO THE RUSSIAN ACTION

The relations between NATO and Ukraine have been discussed in scholarly literature for the two last decades. This issue obtained new dynamics after the 2014 Russian invasion of Ukraine, which had led to the annexation of Crimea and occupation of the eastern parts of the country by Russian army and forces controlled by Russia. After the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2014, NATO condemned the Russian policy on many occasions, provided Ukraine with diplomatic support and launched several programs that were supposed to help Ukraine eliminate deficits in its military capacity limiting Ukrainian possibilities to face Russian aggression. However, NATO member states are not united in their attitude towards the ongoing crisis and one can identify at least four groups of states in NATO. The first group consists of fundamental critics of Russian behaviour because the Russian activities undermine the ongoing international order. The second group is comprised of states that are forced to criticise the Russian actions because they fear Russian expansionism. Their attitude is based on the bad historical experience with Russia and the mistrust towards Russia is historically deeply rooted. The third group of states is formed by the NATO members that prefer to avoid any deterioration in the NATO-Russian relations, criticise the imposed sanctions and call for negotiations with Russia. The fourth group of states does not pay significant attention to this issue and its position is not clear. And last but not least, there are countries in NATO that undermine the NATO cohesion, as they do not condemn the Russian activities at all. Therefore the ongoing crisis is a very important test of the NATO cohesion and readiness for action.