Ukraine is not ready to join NATO — Biden

The US President has said that before NATO can consider including Ukraine in the Alliance, the war in the country must end.

Joe Biden said this in an interview with CNN.

"I think we have to lay out a rational path for Ukraine to be able to qualify to be able to get into NATO," Biden said.

The US president noted that he had refused Russian President Vladimir Putin's demand that Ukraine not be admitted, as NATO adheres to an "open-door policy."

Biden has already said there is currently no unanimity in the Alliance on whether to admit Ukraine to NATO during the war.

In an interview with ABC News, Zelenskyy stressed that Ukraine is looking for concrete security guarantees, which diplomacy alone has not been able to achieve.

"We have seen that earlier. We had some kind of a frozen conflict [since 2014, in eastern Ukraine], and it eventually led to a full-scale invasion," Zelenskyy said.

Turkish President Erdoğan said that Ukraine deserves to be in NATO.

Also, 22 countries have signed declarations of support for Ukraine's membership in the Alliance. Among them are Italy, France, Germany, Finland, Canada, Portugal and others.

The NATO summit will take place on July 11-12 in Vilnius.

Photo: Elizabeth Frantz | Reuters