The Kremlin propaganda media are spreading information that Ukraine can join NATO if it refuses to return the temporarily occupied territories. This was stated in an article by the American edition of The New York Times, which was written by correspondent Steven Erlanger. It's fake.

Experts of the Stop Fake project analyzed the article “If a Divided Germany Could Enter NATO, Why Not Ukraine?” in The New York Times cited by the propagandists. They found that the article does not mention that NATO put forward the demands of Ukraine. Steven Erlanger wrote an article in which he thinks about the possibility of Ukraine joining NATO without temporarily occupied territories and draws parallels with Germany in 1955. Then the Federal Republic of Germany joined the Alliance, and in 1990 the former German Democratic Republic. That is, it happened after the reunification of Germany on October 3, 1990.

At the same time, the journalist writes that the issue of the integrity of Ukraine will not be removed from the agenda, and the experts he interviewed note that the ceasefire is an unfortunate decision, since in this case the war could start again after some time.

Russian propagandists systematically disseminate information that Western partners do not want to help Ukraine and do not want to see it in NATO. Earlier, Detector Media denied the fake that Ukraine is not expected to join NATO.