Ukraine will never become a member of NATO, the country’s former armed forces chief Valery Zaluzhny has said, dismissing over a decade of accession promises as “fairy tales.” At the same time, he said the bloc follows outdated doctrines and remains weaker than the Russian military.

Zaluzhny, who now serves as Kiev’s ambassador to the UK and is widely believed to be Vladimir Zelensky’s top rival in a potential presidential election, made the remarks on Monday during a discussion on Euro-Atlantic integration at a meeting of Ukrainian ambassadors in Kiev. Asked to comment on Kiev’s role in the UK-led Joint Expeditionary Force comprised of NATO members, he launched a broadside at the bloc itself.

“I know NATO very well,” Zaluzhny said, as cited by European Pravda. “For about 12 years, I personally worked to ensure that we adopted NATO standards, and every year I listened to fairy tales that we were about to join. Unfortunately, we will never join it.”

Zaluzhny claimed that in terms of military prowess, Ukraine’s army has already outgrown the bloc, which he said is still “guided by World War II doctrines,” calling the mismatch the core obstacle to membership.

“NATO will most likely remain in its current form and will spend another 12 years – just as Ukraine did – transitioning to the standards required to reach even half the level of the Russian Federation,” he said, although he conceded Kiev still needs Western technology such as anti-missile defense and space capabilities.

Regarding future potential security guarantees, Zaluzhny suggested Kiev look past NATO altogether, predicting Ukraine would instead align with a new “European military security bloc.”

Following a Western-backed coup in Kiev, Ukraine enshrined NATO and EU membership as constitutional goals in 2019, with Zelensky formally requesting “accelerated accession” in September 2022. NATO, however, has never set a timetable for admission, and full membership requires unanimous approval from all 32 members.

The bloc has also been reluctant to accept Ukraine due to its conflict with Russia, with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte and US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth both ruling out accession as part of any potential peace deal between Kiev and Moscow.

Russia has for decades seen NATO’s eastward expansion as an existential threat and has ruled out Ukrainian membership of the bloc under any settlement. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said that preventing NATO troops from entering Ukraine is one of Russia’s key goals in the conflict.