NATO doubled down Tuesday on its commitment to one day include Ukraine, a pledge that some officials and analysts believe helped prompt Russia's invasion this year. The world맥스카지노�s largest security alliance also pledged to send more aid to Ukrainian forces locked in battle with Russian troops.U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with NATO foreign ministers in Romania to drum up support for Ukraine as Russia bombards energy infrastructure ahead to the frigid winter. Russia cannot stop the alliance's expansion, NATO leaders said.맥스카지노�NATO맥스카지노�s door is open,맥스카지노� NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said before chairing the meeting in the capital, Bucharest.He praised North Macedonia and Montenegro recently joining NATO, and said that Russian President Vladimir Putin 맥스카지노�will get Finland and Sweden as NATO members맥스카지노� soon. The Nordic neighbors applied for membership in April, concerned that Russia might target them next.맥스카지노�Russia does not have a veto맥스카지노� on countries joining, Stoltenberg said. 맥스카지노�We stand by that, too, on membership for Ukraine."When they met in Bucharest in 2008, NATO leaders said that Ukraine and Georgia would join the alliance one day.Some officials and analysts believe that move 맥스카지노� pressed on the NATO allies by former U.S. President George W. Bush 맥스카지노� was partly responsible for the war that Russia launched on Ukraine in February. Stoltenberg said NATO expansion would not be hindered.맥스카지노�President Putin cannot deny sovereign nations to make their own sovereign decisions that are not a threat to Russia,맥스카지노� the former Norwegian prime minister said. 맥스카지노�I think what he맥스카지노�s afraid of is democracy and freedom, and that맥스카지노�s the main challenge for him.맥스카지노�Even so, Ukraine will not join NATO anytime soon. With the Crimean Peninsula annexed, and Russian troops and pro-Moscow separatists holding parts of the south and east, it맥스카지노�s not clear what Ukraine맥스카지노�s borders would even look like.Many of NATO맥스카지노�s 30 allies believe the focus now must solely be on defeating Russia, and Stoltenberg stressed that any attempt to move ahead on membership could divide them.맥스카지노�We are in the midst of a war and therefore we should do nothing that can undermine the unity of allies to provide military, humanitarian, financial support to Ukraine, because we must prevent President Putin from winning,맥스카지노� he said.Beyond Ukraine's immediate needs, NATO wants to see how it can help the country longer-term, by upgrading its Soviet-era equipment to the alliance's modern standards and providing more military training.Slovak Foreign Minister Rastislav Kacer said the allies must help Ukraine so that "the transition to full membership will be very smooth and easy맥스카지노� once both NATO and Kyiv are ready for accession talks.In a statement, the ministers vowed to help Ukraine rebuild once the war is over, saying: "we will continue to strengthen our partnership with Ukraine as it advances its Euro-Atlantic aspirations.맥스카지노�Ukraine, for its part, called for more supplies of weapons to defend itself with, and quickly.맥스카지노�Faster, faster and faster,맥스카지노� Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said. 맥스카지노�We appreciate what has been done but the war goes on.맥스카지노�맥스카지노�In a nutshell," he said, "Patriots (missiles) and transformers is what Ukraine needs the most.맥스카지노�Some ministers made pledges of military support for Ukraine, others for financial and nonlethal aid.Slovakia said that it was providing 30 armored personnel carriers and more artillery.During the two-day meeting, Blinken will announce substantial U.S. aid for Ukraine맥스카지노�s energy grid, U.S. officials said. Ukraine맥스카지노�s network has been battered countrywide since early October by targeted Russian strikes, in what U.S. officials call a Russian campaign to weaponize the coming winter cold.Estonia맥스카지노�s foreign minister, Urmas Reinsalu, went a step further than most, calling on his NATO partners to pledge 1% of their GDP to Ukraine in military support, saying it would make 맥스카지노�a strategic difference.맥스카지노�Most NATO allies, however, are struggling to spend 2% of GDP on their own defense budgets.The foreign ministers of NATO candidates Finland and Sweden are joining the talks. NATO is eager to add the two Nordic nations to the defensive forces lined up against Russia. Turkey and Hungary are the holdouts on ratifying their applications. The 28 other member nations have already done so.