Meloni’s Game-Changing Proposal: NATO Protection for Ukraine Without Membership
Kateryna Zakharchenko

In this handout photograph released by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Service on March 2, 2025, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky (L) attends a meeting with Italy?s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni (R) in London, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Photo by Handout / UKRAINIAN PRESIDENTIAL PRESS SERVICE / AFP)
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has proposed granting Ukraine the same security guarantees as NATO member states, even without its official accession to the Alliance.

She suggested extending NATO’s Article 5 – the principle of collective defense, which obliges member states to protect one another – to Ukraine. This would mean that an attack on Ukraine would be considered an attack on the entire West.

Meloni believes this step would ensure reliable and long-term security for the country: “Extending to Ukraine the same protection that NATO countries have would certainly be much more effective, although it would be something different from NATO membership,” she said, adding: “I think this would be a stable, lasting, and effective security guarantee, much better than some of the proposals I have seen.”

Meloni’s proposal would allow NATO’s collective defense principle to be applied to Ukraine without its formal accession. This means that allies could protect Ukraine even if it is not a NATO member.

“Sending unspecified military contingents, whether British or any other, is the most complex and possibly the least effective solution. I have said this, repeated it, and have also ruled out the possibility that Italian troops could be sent in this context,” Meloni told reporters on the sidelines of the European Union leaders’ meeting in Brussels on March 6.

This is the first time Meloni has so clearly expressed her stance on the issue. However, experts believe her initiative is unlikely to gain support from the United States.

Meloni’s proposal comes amid European efforts to support Ukraine while the Trump administration pushes for a swift end to the war. Meanwhile, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth stated last month that Ukraine would not become a NATO member.

After the meeting of the European Union leaders, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky thanked EU leaders after talks on strengthening Kyiv’s military capabilities and European defense.

“Air defense, weapons and ammunition for Ukraine, timely supplies, strengthening the Ukrainian defense industry, negotiations on Ukraine’s accession to the EU, the need to increase sanctions pressure on Russia and counteract the circumvention of sanctions – all these were among our topics today,” he wrote on Telegram.

“It is very important that Ukrainians are not alone. We feel it and know it.”