Biden is "open" to removing the MAP requirement for Ukraine, which means member states would be able to greenlight its accession to the military alliance at any time, the officials were cited as saying.
"The alliance would need to go along with it," one of the officials was quoted as saying.
Member states can equally veto Ukraine's accession, which means that the removal of the MAP is not itself a guarantee of imminent membership, and the country would likely still need to carry out some pro-democracy changes, the newspaper noted.
"We are engaging with our NATO allies on this middle ground approach to determine whether it can gain consensus. We are seeking to find common ground on language that supports NATO's commitment to Ukraine's transatlantic integration," one of the officials was quoted as saying.
If the US succeeds in getting allies on board with the plan, the announcement of the MAP's removal for Ukraine might be made at NATO's July summit in Lithuania, the report said.
Ukraine applied for accelerated NATO membership in September 2022. In early June, Zelenskyy said that Kiev was hoping to receive a clear invitation to the bloc at NATO's 2023 top-level summit in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius. He also said the Ukrainian military was disappointed that Kiev had not yet received a clear positive response about joining both the European Union and NATO.
On June 13, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg reiterated that it was impossible to give a precise date for when Ukraine might become a NATO member so long as it remains engaged in an armed conflict.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Moscow was closely monitoring the situation with Ukraine's NATO bid, pointing out that Kiev's pivot to Euro-Atlantic integration was one of the reasons for the start of Russia's military operation in February 2022.