Zoriana Stepanenko is a correspondent for Current Time and RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service.
Despite failing to receive a detailed plan or timeline to join NATO, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba says the military alliance's members have made the country's path to joining the alliance "shorter" and "absolutely irreversible" at a summit in Vilnius.
NATO member states are "ramping up" production of military supplies to ensure the Western alliance can continue to support Ukraine in its fight against Russia's full-scale invasion, Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told RFE/RL in an interview.
While familiar with Soviet-era T-72 tanks, Ukrainian forces are keen to take newly acquired Leopard 2 tanks into battle against Russian invaders. Crews are undergoing accelerated training in Poland, mastering the advanced targeting systems, speed, and maneuverability of the German-made Leopards.
NATO reconnaissance planes patrol the airspace near the alliance's eastern borders almost daily, watching for activity by Russian military aircraft. RFE/RL correspondent Zoriana Stepanenko and cameraman Marek Hajduk joined the crew of a NATO jet on July 25 for flights over Romania and Poland.
U.S. Ambassador to NATO Julianne Smith, commenting on the Russian invasion of Ukraine, has said that "Russia could stop the war tomorrow if it wanted to." Speaking to RFE/RL, she continued: "We are trying to apply all the pressure that we can on Moscow to change Putin's strategic calculus."
Polish and Lithuanian leaders have expressed support for Ukraine and stressed the need for additional military assistance to Kyiv in the face of the ongoing Russian invasion. Andrzej Duda and Gitanas Nauseda talked to RFE/RL on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Madrid on June 29.
Despite a new plea from Kyiv, Washington is not prepared to support a no-fly zone over Ukraine as it would escalate the conflict with Russia “to a whole new level,” U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price says.
Belarusian opposition leader Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya said she had been "extremely surprised" by the news of German Chancellor Angela Merkel's recent phone call to Belarusian leader Alyaksandr Lukashenka over the migrant crisis on the Belarusian-Polish border.
