Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has been pushing for a clear path to join NATO for some time. Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP/Getty ImagesWestern officials and diplomats, however, hoped that the issue would not be the focus of this week’s summit. Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, second left, and Lithuania's President Gitanas Nauseda, second right, address the public during an event on the sidelines of a NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, Tuesday, July 11, 2023. All of which created room for speculation about NATO’s unity, and allowed its adversaries to call the summit a failure. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg (C) poses for an official family photo with the participants of the NATO Summit in Vilnius on July 11, 2023.

---

Persons: Volodymyr Zelensky, Joe Biden, Andrew Caballero, Reynolds, Zelensky, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Gitanas Nauseda, Pavel Golovkin, Ben Wallace, ”, ” Brett Bruen, Obama, “, Jens Stoltenberg, Odd Andersen, There’s, David van Weel, – Organizations: CNN, NATO, Ukraine, Getty, Ukraine's, British, USA, ”, NATO “ Locations: Lithuanian, Vilnius, Sweden, Turkey, Brussels, Ukraine, AFP, Russia, Lithuania, Russian, America, Vilnius –, Washington