NATO nations look past Ukraine offensive to long-term deterrence pacts

Some former officials cautioned that such agreements should not be seen as a substitute for the formal security guarantees enshrined in NATO’s Article 5, the bloc’s mutual defense clause. They note that Ukraine, unlike Israel, faces an adversary that is the world’s largest nuclear power.

Andrea Kendall-Taylor, a former deputy national intelligence officer for Russia and Eurasia at the National Intelligence Council, said anything short of a security guarantee would keep Ukraine in what she said was a “gray zone” the former Soviet republic has occupied since the end of the Cold War.

“The porcupine plan should not be a replacement for Article 5,” she said. “It has to be both.”

Read the full story and more from The Washington Post.