“Russia threatens allies and partners both militarily, as seen through its invasions of Georgia in 2008 and Ukraine in 2014, and through an aggressive campaign to undermine Western democratic institutions. In light of Russia’s unacceptable actions, NATO is more indispensable than ever. As NATO allies agree, the use of military-grade nerve agent developed by Russia on U.K. territory was a reckless action that put the lives of innocent civilians at risk.

“The United States has made abundantly clear that NATO should not return to business as usual with Russia until Moscow shows a clear change in its actions and complies with international law. …

“The United States is unwavering in our support for NATO’s open-door policy as well, and our commitment that any Euro-Atlantic country that wishes to join the alliance and meets the requirements may do so. We will continue to work with aspirants bilaterally and through NATO structures to help them meet those standards. …

“So there was discussion today about Ukraine, Ukraine’s potential entry to be a NATO partner, that there’s much work to do along the way to achieve that. I think that I’m always careful to describe consensus when there were lots of differing voices about how to approach it and what the right action set ought to be to achieve it, but I think there – I think there was a large group who are hopeful that the Ukrainians will begin to take the actions that would put them in a place where they could, in fact, be an aspirant to become a NATO member.”

– U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, speaking after the NATO foreign affairs ministers’ meeting on April 27 in Brussels, as cited in the Ukrainian Canadian Congress Daily Briefing.