President Zelensky Urges Joe Biden to Gather Support for Ukraine's NATO Membership

JAKARTA - President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday asked the outgoing U.S. administration of President Joe Biden to help convince NATO members to invite Ukraine to join the alliance, as the war with Russia enters an unpredictable new phase.

Kyiv wants NATO members to issue the invitations at an alliance meeting in Brussels, Belgium, this week, as the invasion nears three years and Russia gains ground on the battlefield.

Zelensky was speaking to reporters in Kyiv alongside new European Union President Antonio Costa, who is traveling to Ukraine on his first day in office.

The Ukrainian leader, who has been gauging Ukraine's position before Donald Trump replaced President Biden in January, acknowledged that some NATO allies were still wary of inviting Kyiv to join the alliance, which obliges all members to come to each other's aid if attacked.

"There are two months left in the current administration in the United States," he said, as reported by Reuters on December 2.

"They have an influence on some European skeptics about our future (in NATO)," he added.

Trump himself has been critical of the scale of US support for Ukraine, promising to end the war quickly, without saying how.

In his remarks on Sunday, President Zelensky made clear that any invitation to join the alliance would have to cover all of Ukraine, even if the alliance’s collective defense treaty might not apply to areas occupied by Russian forces.

“There can be no NATO invitation to (only) part of Ukraine,” he said, saying an invitation to only some Ukrainian regions would be a recognition that other regions are no longer Ukrainian.

Costa, for his part, reiterated that the European Union had “supported you from day one of this war of aggression, and you can count on us to continue to support you.”

“These are not just words,” Costa added, the former Portuguese prime minister.

Costa said Ukraine’s process to join the EU was marked by a “sense of urgency” and the bloc could take steps to integrate Ukraine before it joins, such as coordinating mobile phone roaming rules and allowing some goods into the single market.

“We cannot manage this process as usual because this is a geopolitical choice,” he said.

Both Russia and Ukraine have interpreted this as increasing the likelihood of peace talks, which are not known to have taken place since the first months after Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022. Both sides have been trying to improve their standing on the battlefield and among diplomatic allies.

Kyiv has long demanded that Moscow withdraw all troops from its territory, saying Ukraine must be given security guarantees equivalent to NATO membership to deter Russia from invading again.

Moscow, which controls nearly a fifth of Ukraine’s territory, has demanded recognition of its annexation of Ukrainian land and permanent neutrality for Ukraine.