Ukraine declared it would not settle for anything less than NATO membership to guarantee its future security, as the alliance sidestepped Kyiv's call for an immediate invitation at a foreign ministers' meeting on Tuesday.
In a letter to his NATO counterparts ahead of the meeting, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said an invitation would remove one of Russia's main arguments for waging its war: preventing Ukraine from joining the alliance.
Although NATO has stated that Ukraine's path to membership is "irreversible," the alliance has not set a date or issued an invitation. Diplomats said there was currently no consensus among its 32 members to do so.
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