BRUSSELS — NATO defense 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. They are expected to underscore their determination to act should Russian President Vladimir Putin try to expand the war westward.
NATO agreed in 2008 that Ukraine would join the organization one day, but did not set a date for it to start membership talks.
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.
NATO debates ways to boost ties with Ukraine as war against Russian invasion drags on today United States Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, left, greets Ukraine’s Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov during a meeting on the sidelines of a NATO defense ministers meeting at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Thursday, June 15, 2023. NATO defense ministers are holding two days of meetings to discuss their support for Ukraine and ways to boost the defenses of eastern flank allies near Russia. A meeting of the Ukraine Contact Group will also be held to drum up more military aid for the war-torn country.
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