NEW YORK, January 8. /TASS/. US President-elect Donald Trump said he believes there always was an understanding between Russia and the West that Ukraine can’t be a part of NATO.
Asked at a news conference at his Mar-a-Lago mansion whether Ukraine should never join the alliance, he replied, "It was always understood that <…> In fact I believe they had a deal and then [US President Joe] Biden broke it. They had a deal which would have been a satisfactory deal to Ukraine and everybody else but that Biden said, no, you have to be able to join NATO."
Trump, who is scheduled to be sworn in as president on January 20, said Moscow had consistently opposed Ukraine’s potential membership in NATO and he could understand how Russia felt about such prospect.