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biden said if saying at his final speech that the nato alliance isn t going to be backing away from ukraine any time soon. the fact that they re stepping one more support is credibility to those words. a really interesting summit. sometimes these things are not super interesting. they re just some maintenance work. there was drama going into it. some drama for sure. thank you so much. jim? we re joined by former u.s. ambassador to ukraine stephen pfeiffer. thank you for taking the time. happy to be here. first as a practical matter, even zelenskyy knew going to vilnius, he wasn t going to get membership in nato. do you look at the package that was offered to him, this pathway going forward, as a substantial step forward?
testifies on the hill amid a political firestorm there. we are following these developing stories and many more all coming in right here to cnn news central. president biden is on his way to helsinki, finland, to close out a trip that has had major global implications. earlier today he had a lengthy one-on-one meeting with the ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy. he wrapped up the summit with a sweeping speech that touted an alliance that is stronger than ever and reassured ukraine its fate is tied to nato. natasha bertrand is there for us following all of these developments. how was this speech received, natasha? reporter: yeah. i think this will be pretty well received by the ukrainians. the overarching theme of it was
but to join the war if he were to attack again. that s a remarkable potentiality. that s true. but for years, going back to, say, the book rest summit in 2008 where allies said ukraine will be a member. in a not very convincing way. i think there has been over the last 12 to 15 years on the part of many nato allies to give some deference to russian concern about ukraine and nato. it didn t stop the mass inspiration we saw beginning 16 months ago. and i think russia has forfeited any legitimate claim. and you get the sense from looking at the way nato leaders are talking about this. it is a matter of time. we should note as we ve been speaking, ambassador, and there are the pictures. air force one landing in helsinki, finland. the reason the president is going there, finland is the newest member of nato. i was there on a nato task force
everything you want. and he was pushing very hard to get something more definitive. an actual invite into nato. what he did get, i think it is fair to say that ukraine is closer to joining nato after this summit than they were before it. the reason is because of these long-term security guarantees that he s getting from the individual countries that will span over a long time here. and so reversing that relationship between nato and ukraine doesn t seem to be something that any country is interested in doing. he wants these guarantees of a time line. that was what he went in wanting and not getting. but there is also this argument of, it s hard to give a time line. then you set up russia to say, well, fine. we re going to stick it out. and of course, we heard from the white house today very clearly. they don t want to commit to something where immediately, if ukraine is entering nato, now you have to have troops on the ground from the u.s. and their allies. exactly right.