This post may contain links from our sponsors and affiliates, and Flywheel Publishing may receive compensation for actions taken through them. Ukraine formally applied for fast-track NATO membership in September 2022, seven months after Russia’s invasion.

European leaders sought to buy time for Ukraine to work out a new ceasefire framework with Russia after the Trump administration set a one-week deadline to agree to terms that Kyiv and its allies rejected as an unacceptable giveaway to Moscow.