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President-elect Trump has promised a quick end to Russia's nearly three-year war on Ukraine. How that happens, if it happens, remains to be seen. Ukraine wants to avoid being forced to make a painful concession and give up its dream of eventually joining NATO. NPR's Joanna Kakissis has this report.
JOANNA KAKISSIS, BYLINE: Natalia Galibarenko is a career diplomat who has spent years in Brussels advocating for Ukraine's place in the 32-member North Atlantic Treaty Organization. She led Ukraine's mission to NATO.
NATALIA GALIBARENKO: Investing in the Ukrainian security is not a charity. It's an investment, also, in the Euro-Atlantic security, and I think that this describes that very good.
KAKISSIS: As her service in this post ends, she says the last three years of Russian aggression have brought Ukraine and NATO closer than ever.
GALIBARENKO: This is maybe the first time in the history when it is so obvious that Ukrainian membership can be a real asset for this alliance. Because we have now the motivated armed forces using modern Western weapon to defend our territory. If we will become a member, then our army will also become an asset for the alliance.
KAKISSIS: And most of Ukraine's allies also see the country's future in NATO.
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ELINA VALTONEN: I think in the long term, the only credible security guarantee is a NATO membership.
KAKISSIS: That's Finland's foreign minister, Elina Valtonen, speaking to Reuters in Kyiv on Wednesday. The Nordic country joined the security alliance last year.
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VALTONEN: We are supporting Ukraine's NATO membership further down the line. Russia certainly poses a threat to the entire Euro-Atlantic alliance.
KAKISSIS: But the incoming president of NATO's most powerful member, the United States, has other ideas. At a recent press conference at his home in Florida, Trump claimed Russia was promised that Ukraine would never be involved with NATO.
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DONALD TRUMP: That's been, like, written in stone. And somewhere along the line, Biden said, no, they should be able to join NATO. Well, then, Russia has somebody right on the doorstep, and I could understand their feeling about that.
KAKISSIS: The Biden administration has said Ukraine's future is in NATO but does not support an immediate invitation, despite intense lobbying by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Galibarenko, Ukraine's outgoing representative to NATO, explains the reluctance.
GALIBARENKO: The main barrier is the fear if Ukraine will be admitted to NATO, it will drag the whole alliance into the war with the Russian Federation.
KAKISSIS: At the same time, she says, Ukraine is clearly more than just a partner to NATO. It cooperates extensively with member states on intelligence, cybersecurity and energy while also receiving large amounts of military, economic and humanitarian support.
GALIBARENKO: If you are investing so much into Ukraine, especially if you are delivering Western weapons systems, you should be aware that these systems and their technologies will be preserved in Ukraine. So it's very mutually beneficial if you are investing in somebody, and somebody - in that case, Ukraine - would be with you in the same club.
KAKISSIS: As the war has dragged on, however, and the politics in both the U.S. and the European Union have changed, she hears colleagues looking for ways other than NATO membership to protect Ukraine from Russia.
GALIBARENKO: When they're saying about alternative security guarantees for Ukraine besides NATO, I always ask them why should be something alternative invented specifically by Ukraine, and so on and so on. Believe me, it's very difficult to respond.
KAKISSIS: Zelenskyy is not giving up on NATO or his country's place in it, despite the incoming Trump presidency.
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PRESIDENT VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY: I see this as a time of opportunities. And we've come such a long way that it would honestly be crazy to drop the ball now and not keep building on the defense coalitions we've created.
KAKISSIS: For now, he says, these coalitions are Ukraine's best protection from Russia.
Joanna Kakissis, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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