Pentagon Press Secretary Gen. Pat Ryder said that the United States clearly sees Ukraine's future in NATO. Currently, the "bridge" for Ukraine's accession to the Alliance is being built.
Mr. Ryder said this during a briefing.
When asked whether the Pentagon Press Secretary believes that Ukraine should be allowed to join NATO, Ryder replied as follows:
"I think you've heard Secretary Austin and others say that that Ukraine's future is in NATO and so it's not a US decision whether or not to let Ukraine into NATO. It's a NATO alliance decision, so 32 countries, but certainly the things that we are doing now are to -- and you've heard others say this -- is build a bridge for Ukraine to come into NATO. And so part of that is working with them in terms of looking at their military and their defense capabilities... to build interoperability in for the day when they are a member of NATO."
In addition, when a journalist asked whether the United States would support NATO leaders if they decided to admit Ukraine to the Alliance at next week's Summit, Ryder said he did not want to predict the likely decisions. However, he clearly emphasized the following: "we see that Ukraine's future is in NATO."
Earlier, we also reported that the United States announced transfer of new air defense systems to Ukraine.