One of the main goals of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s ambitious invasion of Ukraine was to destroy NATO, and maintaining the alliance is essential for the security of the United States and the West. President Joe Biden told CNN in an interview published Sunday.
Biden and other NATO leaders will meet in Vilnius, Lithuania, starting Tuesday. The talks will focus on providing Ukraine with military support and a possible path to alliance membership.
“I believe Putin had one overwhelming goal since he sent 185,000 troops to Ukraine, and that was to break up NATO,” Biden said. “So keeping NATO together is really essential.”
Biden said when he first met with Putin two years ago in Geneva, the Russian leader asked the United States to commit to keeping Ukraine out of NATO. Biden declined to commit, citing the alliance’s “open door policy.” We are not going to exclude anyone.
But Biden acknowledged there was little desire among current NATO members to “bring Ukraine into the NATO family now” because the defense commitment would mean that all members of the alliance, including the United States, would be at war with Russia. He also pointed out that it will take some time for Ukraine to meet NATO qualifications.
“I spoke at length with (Ukrainian President Volodymyr) Zelenskyy about this, and one of the things I indicated was that the United States would be ready to provide, while the process continued, … security to the security we provide for Israel,” he said.
Developments:
∎ Biden said he was “optimistic” that Sweden would soon get the green light to join NATO. He said Sweden was making some adjustments to its laws at the request of Turkey, which opposed Sweden’s membership, and that a deal could include strengthening Turkey’s air defences.
∎ Russia claimed to have shot down a Ukrainian missile over the Russian region of Rostov, along the Ukrainian border. Regional Governor Vasily Golubev said no damage or injuries were reported.
Zelenskyy: The counter-offensive is advancing, “the initiative is on our side”
The Ukrainian counteroffensive is slowly gaining ground, but “every day means new losses of Ukrainians”, Zelenskyy said. Ukraine’s president, in an interview aired on ABC’s ‘This Week’ on Sunday, noted that several months ago his army was forced to withdraw from parts of eastern Ukraine. . Now some of that land is being reclaimed. He dismissed claims that some Western leaders were disappointed with the pace of gains, saying all were well aware of the “total strength of the Russians” and the amount of equipment at their disposal.
“Of course, we all would like the counter-offensive to be accomplished in a shorter time, but there is a reality,” Zelenskyy said, adding that “today the initiative is on our side.”
The White House was ‘not involved’ in secret talks with Ukraine
The White House says it was aware of but did not encourage or sanction secret talks on Ukraine between a group of former senior US officials and Russians close to Putin’s government. Members of the Council on Foreign Relations met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in April to begin laying the groundwork for ending the war, NBC reported last week. National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications John Kirby said on Sunday that the US government “was not involved in any way” in the conversations.
“We weren’t passing messages to them,” Kirby said.
− Francesca Chambers
