US is ‘Not Going Anywhere,’ Biden Tells Zelensky Ahead of Private Meeting

The U.S. is “doing everything we can to get you everything we can,” President Joe Biden told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as the two prepared to meet privately at the NATO summit in Lithuania after a fraught 36 hours of barbed statements over the question of Ukraine's membership in the European military alliance.

"We're not going anywhere."

Biden made the comment before the two presidents left for a closed-door meeting.

Their conversation was likely to be blunt and friendly, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told MSNBC earlier in the day. Biden "knows that President Zelensky has strong views and isn't afraid to express those views," Sullivan said.

"And he, President Biden, also is very straightforward and honest and candid with President Zelensky. That will be the character of the meeting they have," Sullivan said.

Earlier, Zelensky was seen laughing with Biden and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak at a meeting of the NATO-Ukraine Council.

"I am confident that after the war, Ukraine will be in NATO," Zelensky said in conciliatory remarks at a press conference with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg before his sit-down with Biden. "We'll be doing everything possible to make it happen."

The Biden-Zelensky meeting came after a day that brought both disappointment and rewards for the Ukrainian leader. 

Zelensky started Tuesday by lashing out at his Western allies after learning that Ukraine wouldn’t receive a formal invitation to join NATO. “Uncertainty is weakness,” he said before leaving for the summit on a Polish government jet.

Later, Biden made clear that he approved of Stoltenberg’s measured approach, and his foreign policy team piled on to squelch any lingering Ukrainian optimism.

"This is about the substance of democratic and security sector reforms, and getting those right," national security advisor Jake Sullivan told reporters. "Ukraine has further steps to take along its reform path.”

Security council spokesman John Kirby went further, listing issues that had nothing to do with Ukraine’s territorial integrity.

“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. 

By Tuesday evening it was official. Ukraine wouldn’t be invited to join the military alliance until "members agree and conditions are met," Stoltenberg said.

"The absolute majority of our people expect specifics about these conditions," Zelensky said Wednesday on Twitter. "We perceive them as security conditions. We understand that Ukraine cannot become a member of NATO while the war is ongoing. But then it will be our common strength when Ukraine joins the Alliance.”

On Tuesday, the same day as Zelensky’s outburst, NATO allies pledged more than $1 billion in military aid, including tanks and armored personnel carriers from Germany and long-range missiles from France.

Sullivan and British defense minister Ben Wallace each said in separate comments Wednesday that Ukraine should show more "gratitude" for its Western benefactors.

Since the February 2022 Russian invasion, the U.S. has provided $76.8 billion in assistance to Ukraine, according to the Council on Foreign Relations, with military aid making up 61%, or $46.6 billion.

"I think Ukraine is not ready to become a NATO member yet," a soldier in Kyiv, identified only as Andriy, told the BBC. "There is a lot of corruption within the authorities. We are doing something about it but not a lot. The main thing is that we are given weaponry. When we win, we will be in NATO."