Speaking ahead of NATO’s annual summit on July 9, the U.S. President told Time magazine that he was “not prepared to support the NATO-ization of Ukraine.” Expanding, Biden cited the “significant corruption” he had seen when visiting the country as Vice President.
The president did, however, double down on his support for Ukraine and vowed to continue arming the country should a ceasefire be brokered. Moreover, he emphasized the need to safeguard Ukraine’s sovereignty in the future.
“Peace looks like making sure Russia never, never, never, never occupies Ukraine,” he said. “That’s what peace looks like. And it doesn’t mean NATO, [that] they are part of NATO. It means we have a relationship with them like we do with other countries, where we supply weapons so they can defend themselves in future.”
Biden’s words will come as a bitter blow to Volodymyr Zelenskyy who has repeatedly called for accelerated NATO admission. Other countries immediately threatened by Russia are also likely to be disappointed by Biden’s stance, with one senior NATO official telling the British newspaper The Telegraph that the news would “no doubt infuriate the Baltic and eastern states.”
At last year’s NATO summit in Lithuania, members issued a joint statement declaring that “Ukraine’s future is in NATO.” However, despite several nations supporting a fast-tracked membership plan, little progress has been made.
Biden did, though, use the Time interview to reiterate the importance of backing Ukraine. “If we ever let Ukraine go down, mark my words: you’ll see Poland go, and you’ll see all those nations along the actual border of Russia, from the Balkans and Belarus, all those.”
The U.S. president also hit back when asked if a deal brokered by the Kremlin was the best that Kyiv could now hope for. “No, it’s not,” he said. “I don’t know why you skip over all that’s happened in the meantime. The Russian military has been decimated… It’s been freaking decimated.”
This will come as little consolation to Kyiv, which is bracing for a major Russian offensive in the coming weeks. Moreover, Biden’s words seemingly scrub hopes that a peace deal could be reached if Ukraine were to cede territory in exchange for NATO membership.
