President Bush challenged Nato yesterday to ignore Russia’s objections and back membership for Ukraine and Georgia.

Mr Bush, facing objections from France and Germany, said that he was “absolutely solid” in his support of the two former Soviet states. He insisted that there could be no Kremlin veto and that it was in Nato’s interest to welcome both countries into the military alliance.

Mr Bush told President Yushchenko in Kiev that the United States strongly supported approval of a Membership Action Plan (MAP) at the Nato summit in Romania, which starts today. “In Bucharest, I will continue to make America’s position clear. We support MAP for Ukraine and Georgia,” Mr Bush said. “Helping Ukraine move towards Nato membership is in the interests of the alliance.”

Nato says that it operates an open-door policy with membership available to any democracy that seeks it. But members are split over invitations to Ukraine and Georgia, with Germany leading resistance out of concern about Russian reaction. The decision to set a timetable for membership must be unanimous. Mr Bush rejected suggestions that threats from Moscow would prevent agreement and said that his first visit to Ukraine on the eve of the summit should be “a clear signal to everybody that I mean what I say”. He added: “Every nation has told me that Russia will not have a veto over what happens in Bucharest . . . I am going to work as hard as I can to ensure that Ukraine and Georgia are accepted into MAP.”

François Fillon, the French Prime Minister, said that France was against a membership offer. He told French radio: “We are opposed to Georgia and Ukraine’s entry because we think that it is not the correct response to the balance of power in Europe.”

The Kremlin fiercely opposes Nato’s expansion along its borders and President Putin has threatened to aim nuclear missiles at Ukraine if it joins the alliance. Grigory Karasin, the Russian deputy foreign minister, gave warning that membership would provoke “a deep crisis in Russian-Ukrainian relations”. He told the Duma, Russia’s parliament, that “this crisis will also affect in the most adverse way pan-European security”.

Mr Bush, who will meet Mr Putin after the summit, rejected any idea of a deal that would deny Nato membership to Ukraine and Georgia in return for Russian acquiescence to a US missile defence shield in Eastern Europe. “There are no trade-offs — period. I told that to President Putin in our recent phone call,” he said. He added that Ukraine was the only non-member involved in all of Nato’s current missions. Georgia has 2,000 troops in Iraq and has pledged up to 500 soldiers to support Nato in Afghanistan.

Mr Yushchenko said that membership was in Ukraine’s national interest and “not a policy against somebody”. Ukraine had declared independence six times in the 20th century and failed to secure it five times. “Only a system of collective responsibility, collective security, an international guarantee of the Ukrainian sovereignty, political sovereignty and territorial integrity answers the needs of Ukraine.

“Our nation is determined. I would not like the open-door policy to be replaced by a veto right for a country that is not even a member of the alliance.”

Some reluctant Nato members point to opinion polls that show a majority of Ukrainians against membership. The Party of Regions, led by Viktor Yanukovych, the former Prime Minister, claimed that approval of Ukraine’s application “would spark protests by millions”. There are also concerns about importing into Nato Georgia’s unresolved conflicts with the breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. But Mr Yushchenko said that he was confident of winning a referendum on membership once Nato’s mission was explained.

Mr Bush later had lunch with Yuliya Tymoshenko, Ukraine’s Prime Minister. On the menu was chicken Kiev — a dish with added meaning for the Bush family: George Bush Snr gave what became known as his “Chicken Kiev” speech when he warned against “suicidal nationalism” during a visit to Kiev in August 1991 as the Soviet Union neared collapse.

The forces

— 70,753 active personnel in Ukrainian Army

— 13,932 personnel in the navy

— 45,240 personnel in the air force

— £1.2bn Ukrainian defence budget for 2008

— 17,767 active personnel in Georgian Army

— 495 personnel in the navy

— 1,310 personnel in the air force

— £329m Georgian defence budget for 2007

Sources: IISS Military Balance 2008; opendemocracy.net

Times Recommends

• Mandela’s tribe threatens President Zuma
• The French empire strikes back
• Wife of cheating governor exacts a political revenge