White House: NATO membership for Ukraine isn’t likely soon, would put alliance at war with Russia

White House national security spokesman John Kirby said Tuesday that a NATO membership for Ukraine isn’t likely to happen soon.

“Of course, they are at war right now. So, NATO membership in the immediate future isn’t likely because that would put NATO at war with Russia,” Kirby told CNN in an interview.

President Biden expressed the same concern in an interview last week, saying that Ukraine wasn’t ready for a NATO membership. He noted that NATO members have a responsibility to defend each other, so accepting Ukraine while it is still fighting a war means they would all be at a war with Russia.

Kirby also said that while they “believe that NATO is in Ukraine’s future,” they have some reforms to make before they can be accepted, echoing comments from Biden last month when he said he won’t make it easier for Ukraine to join.

“Now there’s some reforms — good governance, rule of law, political reforms — that Ukraine needs to work on, and we understand it’s hard to work on some of those reforms when you are at war,” Kirby said.

Earlier Tuesday, Zelensky said on Twitter that he “received signals that certain wording is being discussed without Ukraine” and bashed the alliance, saying “it’s unprecedented and absurd when time frame is not set neither for the invitation nor for Ukraine’s membership.” 

Kirby responded to Zelensky’s comments saying “there are frustrations,” adding that the White House understands the desire to end the war quickly.

Biden met with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg earlier Tuesday to discuss Ukraine wanting to join the alliance.

“We agree on the language that … you proposed, relative to the future of Ukraine being able to join NATO,” Biden said ahead of the meeting in Vilnius, Lithuania.

Zelensky and Biden are expected to meet one-on-one in the coming days at the Vilnius summit.