The source said that Berlin plans to urge other NATO members during the Vilnius summit on July 11-12 that they should focus on security assurances to Kiev, and not NATO membership, in order not to risk a war with Russia.
"Berlin is stand-offish at the prospect of offering immediate membership," the source told The Telegraph, adding that Germany "wants a process and time to develop guarantees to essentially block membership," since "Berlin doesn’t want to see [Russian President] Vladimir Putin potentially test Article 5."
According to The Telegraph, the United States, the United Kingdom and the European Union are currently working on "Bucharest-plus" - a series of bilateral security offerings to Kiev - instead of offering Ukraine NATO membership. Individual offers of security guarantees to Kiev would then be combined into an umbrella deal, a "Memorandum of Understanding," endorsed by NATO and the EU, the newspaper said, adding that, according to sources, it would be the "next best offer" to Kiev.
Ukraine applied for a fast-tracked membership in NATO in September 2022 following the start of the Russian military operation in February of that year. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has on numerous occasions said that the bloc was supportive of Kiev's aspirations but was not ready to approve its application right away, chiefly due to Ukraine's active involvement in an armed conflict.
In early June, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Kiev hoped to receive a clear invitation to join the bloc at the NATO summit in the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius on July 11-12. He also said the Ukrainian military was disappointed that Ukraine had not yet received a clear positive response about joining both the European Union and NATO.
On June 19, Stoltenberg said that the top-level summit in July would not discuss a formal invitation, but rather ways to "move Ukraine closer to NATO."