A disconsolate Vlodymyr Zelenskyy declared on Sunday that “things do not look good for my country” after the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) announced that it would not consider Ukraine’s application for NATO membership until 2027 at the earliest. He added bitterly that it was “a hard slap to the face of my nation,” given that NATO had recently offered membership to both Stanford University and the University of California at Berkeley. The two schools are seeking to bolt from the Atlantic Coast Conference, which is the least prestigious ocean-based conference.
Mark Rutte, Secretary General of NATO, defended the organization’s decision, noting that Ukraine does not field a team that plays American-style football: “If Ukraine was serious about joining NATO, it would spend more time recruiting quarterbacks and less time drafting soldiers.”
You gotta have your priorities, after all.