Biden hails Sweden's impending NATO admission ahead of tense meeting with Ukraine

VILNIUS, Lithuania — President Joe Biden on Tuesday celebrated Sweden’s impending admission to NATO while also preparing for a tense meeting with Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who blasted the alliance for stalling the membership bid of his war-torn nation.

Zelenskyy’s outburst threatened to upend the sense of solidarity that has permeated the early hours of the summit and yielded some undeniable triumphs amid the shadow of the conflict. Biden exalted in the alliance growing by yet another nation in a direct response to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine.

“This is a historic moment. Adding Finland and now Sweden to NATO is consequential,” Biden said as he stood alongside the alliance’s leader. “And we're looking for a continued united NATO. I still think that President Putin thinks the way he succeeds is to break NATO and we're not going to do that.“

Sweden followed Finland in joining NATO, an alliance formed as a bulwark to Moscow’s aggression that was tested — and then strengthened and expanded — when Putin ordered his forces across Ukraine’s border more than 500 days ago.

Scenes of international camaraderie also pervaded Vilnius. Biden praised Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who dropped his objections to allow Sweden’s entrance to the post-World War II era alliance. He was seen chatting during the leaders’ family photo with Hungary’s Viktor Orbán, a rogue actor accused of rolling back democracy in his nation. And Biden warmly congratulated NATO secretary general Jens Stoltenberg, who agreed to remain in his post during a moment of European war.

But anger from Zelenskyy, who unleashed a tirade while en route to Vilnius, suspended over the day. Zelenskyy delivered scathing criticism of the nations — including the United States — that have not offered support for Ukraine to quickly join NATO.

“It’s unprecedented and absurd when the timeframe is not set neither for the invitation nor for Ukraine's membership,” Zelenskky tweeted the day before he was to sit down with Biden. “While at the same time vague wording about 'conditions' is added even for inviting Ukraine.”

“It seems there is no readiness neither to invite Ukraine to NATO nor to make it a member of the Alliance,” the Ukrainian president continued. “This means that a window of opportunity is being left to bargain Ukraine's membership in NATO in negotiations with Russia. And for Russia, this means motivation to continue its terror.”

Ukraine’s future membership has created a divide within NATO which has, for the most part, marched in lock step since Putin’s invasion. The Baltic States, living on Russia’s flank, have pushed for Ukraine’s inclusion, receiving support from Poland and, of late, signs of approval from France. That stands in stark contrast with Germany and the United States, which oppose an immediate move.

The White House has signaled for months its openness to Ukraine joining the alliance — but not just yet. Its primary concern: if Ukraine becomes an immediate member, it would trigger Article 5, the alliance’s self-defense pact, automatically throwing NATO into a war with Russia.

Biden this week said that he did not think shortcuts should be offered for Ukraine, which still needs to undergo some internal reforms, and national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Tuesday that Ukraine would not receive the needed unanimous support in Vilnius.

“I can't put a timetable on it. I don't believe that you will see that coming out of here,” Sullivan briefed reporters. “This is about the substance of democratic and security sector reforms and getting those right.”

Sullivan said that a goal of the summit was to create a pathway — even if not an exact timetable — for Ukraine to join the alliance once the fighting stops. That was underscored by the joint communique issued by the NATO nations which plainly states “Ukraine’s future is in NATO” and sets about creating a new NATO-Ukraine Council to increase Kyiv’s voice at the table.

But no timetable was established, sure to add to Zelenskyy’s ire. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), in Vilnius as part of a bipartisan congressional delegation, said NATO was right not to extend membership to Ukraine just yet.

Zelenskyy “was expecting something that I don't think was realistic,“ Durbin said in an interview on the summit’s sidelines. An offer to join NATO will be made to Ukraine "at some point,” he said, but “there’s a process, and it won’t start as long as there’s a war.”

And that idea had bipartisan support in Vilnius. Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), co-chair of the NATO Observer Group, said it was proper not to make Ukraine’s entry into the alliance easier.

“A one-off process is not necessary,” he told reporters Tuesday. “We need to maintain the integrity of the process.“

The rift was certain to dominate Zelenskyy’s meeting Wednesday with Biden. The Ukrainian leader, who has proven masterful at dominating attention and receiving political support for his embattled nation, vowed to press his case further at the summit. His nation’s counteroffensive against dug-in Russian forces was making slow progress, however, which had raised some alarms among some European leaders increasingly wary of selling another year of massive support to increasingly skeptical publics.

But there were few signs of reticence in Vilnius. A number of nations — including Germany and the United States — touted more security assistance to Kyiv in the Lithuanian capital, which was thoroughly covered in blue-and-yellow-Ukrainian flags. Biden was only the second U.S. president to visit the former Soviet state, which itself joined NATO in 2004, and its leader, Gitanas Nausėda, warned that “the situation in our region is unfortunately deteriorating and we see what is happening around us.”

But there was celebration throughout the summit about Sweden’s seemingly imminent move to join the alliance. Erdoğan had dropped his objection late Monday, just before Biden arrived in Lithuania, and the American president expressed his gratitude to his Turkish counterpart in their bilateral meeting.

“I want to thank you for your diplomacy and your courage to take that on,” Biden said. “And I want to thank you for your leadership.”

White House officials took pains to suggest that their support for a sale of F-16s to Ankara was not a quid pro quo for Sweden’s admission though momentum was growing on Capitol Hill to approve the transfer.

Biden was slated to close out his time in Vilnius late Wednesday with what White House officials have deemed a major speech about the fight for democracy in Europe. He will then travel to visit NATO’s other new member, Finland. He is expected to hold a Thursday news conference in the Finnish capital — five years to the week since his predecessor, Donald Trump, did the same in a very different political moment.

It was then when Trump sided with Putin over U.S. intelligence agencies over Russian election interference. Biden, meanwhile, will use the moment, aides said, to tout NATO’s expansion to stop the aggression of that very same Russian leader.

Alexander Ward contributed to this report.