One of Donald Trump’s former officials has warned that inviting Ukraine to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) could risk nuclear war.
Speaking to Fox News Digital, Robert O’Brien, who served as Trump’s national security adviser between 2019 and 2021, said Ukraine could not join the alliance without a significant risk of an escalation of tensions with Russia.
“To bring a country into NATO and the alliance that’s in a war with Russia is very provocative to the Russians, and could lead to escalation, even nuclear war,” O’Brien said.
Insisting that Ukrainian NATO membership was “too provocative at this point,” O’Brien suggested that as alternatives the U.S. could give Kyiv security guarantees or put more eastern European troops in Ukraine after any peace deal is brokered.