President Biden: Peace in Ukraine does not mean NATO membership.

In an interview with TIME, US President Joe Biden said that peace in Ukraine means ensuring that “Russia never, never, never, never occupies Ukraine”.

But this does not mean NATO membership, the American president noted. Biden said that Ukraine is already part of the Alliance.

“We have the same relations with them as we do with other countries where we supply weapons so that they can defend themselves in the future”.

But I was one who was not ready to support Ukraine’s immediate membership in NATO, the president said. He recalled that when he was a senator and vice president visiting Ukraine, he noted “significant corruption”, and that this was “a circumstance that was really difficult”.

At the same time, Biden stressed that the West should not allow Ukraine to fall, as this would mean instability for all countries along the border with Russia, including the Balkans, and Belarus.

He also denied the idea that NATO is moving closer to war with Russia by helping Ukraine: “No, we’re on a slippery slope for war if we don’t do something about Ukraine.”