Ever since the NATO summit took place in Vilnius last week, I’ve been trying to work out what to think about the Anglo-American suggestions that Ukrainians should show more “gratitude” for what Western countries are doing for them. There was the predictable social media cycle — hot take, response, annoyance, political capital taken, explanation, general confusion — but none of that helped me understand why the remarks intrigued me so much in the first place.

For the last two decades, Ukraine’s relationship with NATO has been fraught. Back in 2002, Leonid Kuchma, Ukraine’s president at the time, gate-crashed the NATO summit. He did this despite being disinvited in light of the allegations that he had overseen the decapitation of journalist Giorgiy Gongadze (may he rest in peace) and smuggled weapons to Iraq. Kuchma’s surprise appearance forced the presidents’ places to be alphabetically arranged in French — rather than the more-standard English — to avoid the awkward sight of him sitting next to the leaders of the United Kingdom and United States. In 2008, Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko attended another NATO summit, still riven by post-Iraq War splits, winning a promise that his country could join the alliance but with no suggestions as to when.

Thanks to these humiliating-for-Ukraine episodes, I was surprised when — at an advisory council meeting for the Anti-Corruption Action Center, Ukraine’s most influential NGO, back in 2019 — the founders said they would be pushing for Ukrainian membership in NATO as part of their mission to advance political integrity in Ukraine. I am a member of the council, and I wasn’t alone in worrying that the policy might distract from the center’s core mission and cost it the support of NATO’s many skeptics.

Back then, it was still possible to see Ukraine’s two wars — the domestic one against corruption and the external one against Russia — as separate. Since February 2022, however, all such arguments are meaningless. Tackling bribe-taking is as much a part of winning the war as mine clearance, and defeating Russia is as crucial to a healthy political culture as sacking crooked judges.