NATO and the Case of Ukraine

For Ukraine to join NATO, one of the core issues has to be that you don't have a border dispute with any of your neighbors. An Article 5 guarantee would guarantee that NATO immediately goes into a state of general war. Even if Russia were to be defeated completely tomorrow and its fangs removed, only then could NATO begin the process of its 30-odd members actually going through the accession process. That all by itself is another five years.