U.S. President Joe Biden will meet with his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, during a trip to France this week to seek ways to further support Kyiv in its fight against Russia's unprovoked invasion, though not with the NATO membership reassurance that Ukraine is seeking.
The White House said the two leaders will meet some time during commemorations of the 80th anniversary of the Allied landings in Normandy during World War II.
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Biden, who arrived in France on June 5, is scheduled to visit the beaches of Normandy on June 6 and the cemetery where rows of graves of U.S. soldiers who died in the battle are marked by white headstones.
Biden is also scheduled to speak on June 7 at Pointe du Hoc, a spot on the French coast where army rangers scaled seaside cliffs to overcome Nazi defenses.
White House national-security adviser Jake Sullivan said Biden will stress how "the dangers of isolationism, and how if we bow to dictators...they keep going and ultimately America and the world pays a greater price."
Biden's meeting with Zelenskiy will be the first face-to-face talks between the two leaders since the U.S. Congress on April 20 finally approved a desperately needed $61 billion military aid package for Ukraine.
It comes shortly after Biden told Time magazine in an interview that he did not support NATO membership for Ukraine -- a position in contradiction with that of NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg -- which is likely to raise questions from Zelenskiy.
"While he's in Normandy, he'll have the opportunity to sit down with President Zelenskiy and have an engagement with him to talk about the state of play in Ukraine and how we can continue and deepen our support for Ukraine," national-security adviser Jake Sullivan said.
"He will also have an opportunity several days later to see President Zelenskiy at the G7 [summit] in Italy, and then as you saw, he has asked Vice President [Kamala] Harris to represent the United States at the peace summit in Switzerland, and I will accompany the vice president on that trip," he said.
In the wide-ranging June 4 interview with Time, Biden said that "peace looks like making sure Russia never, never, never, never occupies Ukraine. That's what peace looks like."
But, he added, "It doesn't mean NATO, [that] they are part of NATO."
"It means we have a relationship with them like we do with other countries, where we supply weapons so they can defend themselves in the future. But...I am not prepared to support the NATOization of Ukraine."
In reaction to Biden's interview, a NATO source who spoke on condition of anonymity told RFE/RL that "my understanding is that the American line has been and still is that Ukraine should be offered 'a bridge to NATO membership.'"
Furthermore, the source said, NATO clearly stated in the final declaration of last year's summit in Vilnius that "Ukraine’s future is in NATO" and there are indications that the upcoming summit of the alliance in Washington next month would reinforce the message of support for Kyiv's eventual membership.
"My understanding is that the Vilnius declaration still stands, we haven't started drafting the Washington declaration yet but the understanding going in to the talks is that the language not only will stay the same but that there will be a 'plus up' or a 'tweak up' so that the text might be even slightly more positive towards Kyiv," the source said.
Ukraine was one of the first former eastern bloc countries to join NATO's Partnership for Peace plan in 1994, and applied for NATO membership in September 2022 after Russia proclaimed it had annexed part of Ukraine's southeast.
Oleksandr Krayev, program director of the analytical center Ukrainian Prism, told RFE/RL that Biden's statement "is not very positive" for Ukraine because it establishes the position that the United States is not ready to support Ukraine's membership in NATO.
But on the other hand, Biden's words are not unlike what the United States has said before: "Ukraine will not be in NATO, but Ukraine is perceived as an ally in NATO, and if someone wants to use weapons of mass destruction there or something similar, the Americans will react," Krayev said.
At a NATO summit in Bucharest in 2008, NATO members welcomed Ukraine and Georgia's aspirations to join but declined to provide a clear timeline for their possible membership.
The 2008 summit was also attended by Russian President Vladimir Putin, who participated in bilateral NATO-Russia talks.
Zelenskiy's talks with Biden will come amid a difficult battlefield situation for outmanned and outgunned Ukrainian forces on the eastern front.
Russia has stepped up almost daily strikes on civilian targets in the northeastern region of Kharkiv, where Moscow has been attempting to reestablish a bridgehead, and in the eastern region of Donetsk, where intense fighting continues.
Zelenskiy will also meet French President Emmanuel Macron on June 7 in Paris, the Elysee Palace announced. Meanwhile, Italian Prime Minister Georgia Meloni said Zelenskiy will take part in the G7 summit of the most developed nations that will be held on June 13-15 in the southern Italian region of Puglia.