Speaking on the margins of the two-day Ukraine Recovery conference in London yesterday, Cleverly said the UK was "very, very supportive" of Ukraine being able to join Nato without the usual need for it to meet the conditions set out in a Nato membership action plan.
Frances's foreign minister, Catherine Colonna, was more cautious but said circumstances had changed since 2008, when Ukraine was last offered Nato membership on the condition that it met the terms set out in an action plan.
The issue of the terms on which Ukraine is offered Nato membership has been dividing allies before a Nato summit next month. There have been concerns in the US and Germany that early Nato membership for Ukraine might provoke Russia and change the Nato structure.
Cleverly said that, through the war, the Ukrainian army had modernised and aligned its weaponry with Nato so as to make it possible to dispense with an action plan. The plan is conceived as an alternative to offering Ukraine a timetable for membership at the Nato summit in Vilnius next month. Ukraine would like a pathway with specific dates.
All sides have agreed that Ukraine cannot join Nato - and thus be covered by its guarantee that an attack on one is an attack on all - until the war is over. But the offer to drop the action plan would be a signal of European intent.
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