You glossed right over that one, chief.
We both know why.
Alright, since you asked:
Even in 2022 and 2023, the settled position of ALL of European NATO’s member countries - including France and Germany, and Slovakia and Hungary - was that it while the NATO “open door policy” has been there since the very start of NATO, Ukraine can’t be told it can’t apply - but even if it does apply, they’d rather not annoy Russia by saying yes.
Don’t believe me?
It’s literally all of the European NATO leaders telling Putin, in a roundabout fashion, that Ukraine will only join NATO when (a) pigs are flying; (b) Russia has confirmed (through its deeds rather than its words) that it doesn’t object to Ukraine joining NATO, and (c) Ukraine has met all of the criteria for the 32 countries to all vote yes (and these criteria range from taking 10-20 years to hit, to impossibly high bars). So, in practice, it’ll never happen.
There’s not even a consensus in EU-NATO in favour of rubber-stamping a draft Membership Action Plan for Ukraine to follow.
Why do you think Zelensky said this in 2022? “For years we have been hearing about how the door is supposedly open (to NATO membership) but now we hear that we cannot enter. And it is true, and it must be acknowledged.” (https://edition.cnn.com/2022/03/15/europe/ukraine-nato-zelensky-shift)
Zelensky and Putin have both known all along, two things.
1. no application from Ukraine = no NATO membership for Ukraine, ever.
2. Just one veto from one NATO member = no NATO membership for Ukraine, ever.
Putin went on Russian TV multiple times before 2008 to say Ukraine was a free country and he had no objections to it joining either EU or NATO. Safe in the knowledge that it didn’t matter what the Bush-era neocons kept saying, Ukraine wasn’t interested in applying and Europe would’ve blocked the MAP even if they had applied.
The only thing that has FORCED Ukraine into begging to be admitted into NATO is, Ukraine’s had enough of Russia demanding Ukraine weaken itself only so that Russia can attack Ukraine more effectively, and even countries like France and Germany that once would’ve said no to Ukraine because they once believed Moscow’s bullshit promises to the effect of, there’d be peace all round if Ukraine was never admitted to NATO.
They don’t believe it because it is patently, provably false. Even when Ukraine had never applied for NATO membership, EU NATO was effectively blocking its accession, and the only government retarded enough to keep insisting Ukraine would join NATO eventually was the American one, Russia attacked Ukraine anyway.