Doug Bandow A senior fellow at the Cato Institute (Washington, the United States), Doug Bandow, has said that Ukraine's joining NATO will not guarantee the country full-scale protection in the case of any military attack.

"The fundamental question during Ukraine's accession to NATO is how much such an action would really ensure the country's security. This will most likely bring tension in relations with Russia, but the question remains unclear how much Ukraine could really hope for support from alliance members," he said at a roundtable entitled "NATO, U.S. Influence, and Ukraine's Elections" in Kyiv on Tuesday.

Bandow said that each state should rely on its own people in the question of security and defense.

"Only the people can really ensure the defense of their motherland… It should be remembered that political speeches don't at all mean military support… The doubts of France and Germany in the question of the North Atlantic alliance's enlargement are again confirmed by this thesis," he said.