"Ultimately culturally it is accepted that Ukraine will join NATO. When that happens is either condition-based. Also, before ...[the conflict started in February, 2022], Britain with Sweden, Canada, the United States were investing in Ukraine and building their capabilities," Wallace said at a news conference during the NATO summit in Vilnius.
In 2014-2015, Ukraine negotiated a series of measures with Russia, France and Germany known as the Minsk Agreements aimed at a political resolution of conflict in Donbass. In February of this year, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky admitted that he told former German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron that Kiev never intended to fulfill the Minsk Agreements. Merkel said that the deal had been merely an attempt to give Ukraine time to gain strength ahead of a full-scale military confrontation.