Joe Biden said Ukraine is not “ready” to be a part of the Nato alliance
President Joe Biden said on Sunday that Ukraine is not “ready” to be a part of the Nato alliance, a pronouncement that will likely chill some concerns raised by some members of the alliance ahead of a major summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, Independent writes.
The US president made the comments at the beginning of an interview with Fareed Zakaria of CNN, and is likely seeking to blunt the enthusiasm of Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky, who has insisted that his country should be admitted to the alliance as it passes the 500th day of a Russian assault into its heartland.
Mr Zelensky has been relentless throughout the course of the war in rallying Western support for his cause, including his seeking increasingly powerful shipments of weapons and war vehicles as his military battles and pushes back a larger but underperforming Russian force.
In recent days, that has meant a vow by Mr Biden to expand the transfer of cluster munitions to Ukraine’s military – a move that some in the US have called a bridge too far.
“I don’t think it’s ready for membership in Nato, but here’s the deal: I spent a great deal of time trying to hold Nato together,” said Mr Biden, adding that he believed Russia’s goal was to “break Nato” as an alliance.
