US President Joe Biden has cast doubt on Ukraine's chances of quickly joining Nato ahead of a major summit in Lithuania this week.
"I don’t think it’s ready for membership in Nato," he told CNN in an interview aired on Sunday, as he prepared to fly to London.
He said joining the bloc required countries to “meet all the qualifications, from democratisation to a whole range of other issues.”
On Tuesday and Wednesday, Nato's 31 member nations will meet in Vilnius amid high security as the war in Ukraine rages just a few hundred kilometres away.
While squabbling among Nato members is not uncommon, any signs of division in the current climate will be perceived as a weakness by Russia.
On Sunday, German diplomatic sources told the UK's Telegraph newspaper that they were prepared to block Volodymyr Zelenskyy's attempts to join amid fears it could drag the alliance into armed conflict with Russia.
A Nato source suggested German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and his team would use the annual summit to press for a collective focus on security assurances, rather than membership proposals, to help Kyiv defend itself without becoming a member.
“Berlin is standoffish at the prospect of offering immediate membership,” the source told The Telegraph.
“It wants a process and time to develop guarantees to essentially block membership.”
The insider added that Germany was trying to avert a scenario that would see President Vladimir Putin “potentially test Article 5”. The clause stipulates if a Nato member is attacked, all of its fellow signatories will consider it an attack on themselves and must come to its defence.
Amid division over Washington’s decision to arm Kyiv with cluster munitions, the allies also appear to be poles apart on how to respond to President Zelenskyy’s calls for accession.
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500 days of war in Ukraine - in pictures
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As the war in Ukraine approaches the 500-day mark, 'The National' looks back at the conflict. All photos: AP -
Ukrainian soldiers cover their ears to protect from Russian tank shelling in a shelter on the front line in the Zaporizhzhia region in July -
A cemetery in evening sunlight near Lviv in July -
Flooded streets in Kherson in June after the walls of the Kakhovka dam collapsed -
Tetiana with her pets, Tsatsa and Chunya, in her house that was flooded when the Kakhovka dam in Kherson was breached -
Young cadets sing the national anthem during a graduation ceremony at a cadet lyceum in Kyiv in June -
Bakhmut in April, the site of the heaviest battles in the Donetsk region -
A message on a mirror reads 'Ukraine will prevail' in a badly damaged school in Kharkiv in February -
Ukrainian servicemen in position close to the border with Belarus in February -
Hospital staff in Kherson with orphaned children at the regional hospital maternity ward in November 2022 -
A sniper unit aims at Russian positions in the Kherson region during an operation in November 2022 -
Ukrainian artillerymen fire at Russian positions near Bakhmut in November 2022 -
A Ukrainian serviceman near Oskil village in October 2022 -
Funeral workers carry the coffin of an unidentified civilian who died in the Bucha community during the Russian occupation period in February-March 2022 -
Cadets practise with gas masks in a bomb shelter on the first day of school at a cadet lyceum in Kyiv, Ukraine, in September -
A young girl with her dog waves goodbye to her grandparents from an evacuation train leaving Pokrovsk in August 2022 -
A child looks up at a building destroyed during attacks in Irpin in May 2022 -
An elderly patient boards a medical evacuation train in Pokrovsk in May 2022 -
Nila Zelinska holds a doll belonging to her granddaughter that she found in her destroyed house in Potashnya, on the outskirts of Kyiv, in May 2022 -
Residents shelter in the city subway of Kharkiv in May 2022 -
Destroyed Russian tanks in Bucha, April 2022 -
A family fleeing the village of Ruska Lozova in April 2022 arrive in their shrapnel-riddled car at a screening point in Kharkiv -
Smoke fills the air after shelling in Odesa in April -
Yehor, 7, with a wooden toy rifle next to destroyed Russian military vehicles near Chernihiv in April 2022 -
Security Service of Ukraine servicemen enter a building during an operation to arrest suspected Russian collaborators in Kharkiv in April 2022 -
A Ukrainian soldier during a pick-up game of football in Irpin in April 2022 -
The partially abandoned town of Chernobyl in April 2022 -
Ruslan Mishanin, 36, bids farewell to his nine-year-old daughter as the train with his family leaves Odesa for Poland in April -
Halyna Falko, 52, talks to reporters in March 2022 while looking at the destruction caused to her house near Brovary after a Russian attack -
Anti-tank barricades on a street in preparation for a possible Russian offensive in Odesa in March 2022 -
A man recovering items from a burning shop after a Russian attack in Kharkiv in March 2022 -
Ukrainians under a destroyed bridge as they as they cross the Irpin river on the outskirts of Kyiv in March 2022
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Germany is not alone in its reluctance to give Mr Zelenskyy a seat at the table in the near future.
The topic poses one of the largest challenges facing Nato.
Some argue that admitting Ukraine would fulfil a promise made year ago and be an important step to deter Russian aggression in Eastern Europe.
But others are sceptical, making the case that such a move could be viewed by Moscow as a provocation.
Douglas Lute, who served as US ambassador to Nato under former American president Barack Obama, said: “Any fissure, any lack of solidarity provides an opportunity for those who would oppose the alliance."
Russian President Vladimir Putin is eager to exploit divisions as he struggles to gain ground in Ukraine and faces political challenges at home, including the aftermath of a brief revolt by the Wagner mercenary group.
“You don’t want to present any openings,” Mr Lute said. “You don’t want to present any gaps or seams.”
