NATO defence ministers gathered Thursday to discuss future relations with Ukraine as Russia's war on the country thwarts its hopes of joining the world's biggest security alliance soon.
The ministers were also due to take part in a separate meeting at NATO headquarters of the U.S.-led Ukraine Contact Group -- the forum Ukraine's supporters routinely join to try to drum up weapons and ammunition to help Kyiv fight the Russian invasion.The NATO meeting comes just under a month before U.S. President Joe Biden and his counterparts gather for a summit in Lithuania in a symbolic show of support for Ukraine.
As the war ground on, Ukraine applied for "accelerated accession" to NATO on Sept. 30. With its Crimean Peninsula annexed, and Russian troops and pro-Moscow separatists holding parts of the south and east, it's not clear what Ukraine's borders would even look like. "We agree that the most urgent task now is to ensure that Ukraine prevails as a sovereign independent nation because unless Ukraine prevails and can continue as a democratic state in Europe, there is no membership issue to be discussed at all," he said, ahead of the meeting.
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