Mr. Putin made the threat of war over Ukraine between nuclear superpowers explicit twice in recent days — in news conferences after his meetings with Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary last week and with Mr. Macron on Monday. Both times, Mr. Putin described a scenario in which Ukraine would join NATO and then, with the Western alliance’s backing, try to recapture Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula that Russia annexed in 2014.
Dmitri Kiselyov, one of Russian state television’s leading anchors, on Sunday detailed what would happen next: a nuclear war in which Russia, faced with its own destruction, would take the West with it.
“Let’s remember that Russia doesn’t need a world without Russia,” Mr. Kiselyov intoned at the beginning of his weekly prime-time show, paraphrasing a 2018 line by Mr. Putin. “And then not just America, but also Europe, will turn into radioactive ash.”
Western officials describe NATO membership for Ukraine as unrealistic anytime in the near future, but the Kremlin insists that even the possibility poses an existential threat. ...
Here is where I have always part company with my country and its allies and I do so again. This is a no brainer. No. Brainer. Ukraine, sorry, whatever your wishes, you're not joining NATO ever. EVER. There is absolutely no reason for the U.S. to risk nuclear Armageddon over a no-treaty wannabe. Sorry! However that guarantee could be given, I as U.S. president would sign whatever I have to sign with Putin and I would read it publicly, "Ukraine will never join NATO." Period. Full Stop.