[maxsanic]

https://www.aljazeera.com/amp/news/2023/...-zelenskyy

Nah... Zelenskyy's probably popping champagnes in celebration privately.

Despite whatever wayangs Zelenskyy says in public, this is actually a very good development for him. I’m very sure he was never under any illusion that US / EU are going to let Ukraine in after seeing their half past six, start-stop, water-drip-drip contributions to the war.
 
What Zelenskyy needs is just a good story to tell everyone in Ukraine – “Look guys, we’ve been conned and betrayed. US/EU isn't gonna help us, so let’s start to look for alternatives”. NATO’s latest pathetic response sets up Zelenskyy nicely to begin his repositioning.
 
If they had given him more concrete stuff and then subsequently make use of the bureaucratic process to stall Ukraine’s membership (for e.g. every country can just take turns to object and/or clarify application documents), the Ukrainian masses will forever be hanging on to the thread of some elusive promise. This limits Zelenskyy’s choices as anything less than slugging it out with Russia will be seen as treacherous.