Zelensky to take center stage as NATO summit also looks to Asia

NATO leaders on Thursday will hold talks with Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky and turn their attention to the challenge from China at a meeting with Asian partners, as they wrap up a three-day summit in Washington.

The 32-nation alliance has used the pomp-filled set piece in the U.S. capital to showcase its resolve against Russia and backing for Kiev.

Their gathering has been overshadowed by political uncertainty in the United States as President Joe Biden — who will give a press conference Thursday — fights for his own political survival.

Zelensky will join his NATO counterparts at a giant convention center in the heart of the U.S. capital after getting promises of new weaponry to bolster the defense of the skies over Ukraine.

But he has called on Kiev's backers, especially the United States, to go further — including by giving his outgunned forces greater scope to strike inside Russia.

"Imagine how much we can achieve when all limitations are lifted," Zelensky said on the sidelines of the summit.

NATO's leaders on Wednesday once again demurred from issuing his war-torn country a clear invitation to join their alliance.

Zelensky unleashed a diplomatic firestorm at a summit in Lithuania last year by lambasting NATO's reluctance on membership.

In a bid to soften any disappointment this time around, NATO leaders called Ukraine's path to membership "irreversible."

They also pledged to provide Kiev a minimum of 40 billion euros ($43 billion) in military support "within the next year."

Biden announced that Denmark and the Netherlands had begun sending U.S.-made F-16 jets to Ukraine — making good on a key promise last year to Kiev, which has struggled to gain parity in the air with Russia.

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