Ukraine must win war to join NATO - Kirby
John Kirby, Strategic Communications Coordinator at the White House National Security Council (GettyImages)
For Ukraine to join NATO, it must win the war against Russia. The United States is doing everything to ensure that Ukrainians can achieve this, according to John Kirby, the coordinator for strategic communications at the White House National Security Council.
"The alliance has talked about and the United States has certainly talked about, first they gotta win this war, right? They gotta win the war first," Kirby said.
He also said that when the war is over, no matter what it looks like, Ukrainians are still going to have a long border with Russia and a legitimate security threat to the Ukrainian people.
According to Kirby, Joe Biden "believes that NATO is in Ukraine's future."
"There's a lot of things that have to be done before they can join the alliance, like any member has to do before they can join the alliance," he added.
Kirby emphasized that a bilateral security agreement will help Ukraine defend itself while the allies work on securing everything necessary.
"They can apply for NATO membership. But we do believe that NATO is in Ukraine's future, and we're going to work with them every step of the way to get them there," he concluded.
Ukraine in NATO
Seven months after Russia's full-scale invasion, Ukraine officially applied for NATO membership. At the same time, the application stated that Kyiv wanted an accelerated accession procedure without the so-called NATO Membership Action Plan.
Recently, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Kyiv is already preparing for the upcoming NATO summit.
For her part, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Olha Stefanishyna said that Washington and Berlin oppose an official invitation for Kyiv to join the Alliance.
Read more about how Ukraine is progressing toward NATO membership in RBC-Ukraine's material.
