BIDEN: UKRAINE NOT READY FOR NATO MEMBERSHIP: With less than 24 hours before the head of NATO’s 31 nations gather in Vilnius, Lithuania, the allies are scrambling to come up with a compromise to assuage Ukraine’s desire for a concrete plan for join the alliance, while stopping short of any formal invitation that would trigger the accession process while war with Russia is still raging.

“I am confident that we’ll find the united way also to address the specific issue on membership, but I will not go into the details of exact language now because that is something we will announce when everything is in place by the summit,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters Friday. Among the consolation prizes being offered is the creation of a NATO-Ukraine Council, which Stoltenberg described as “a political platform where we can have crisis consultations and also actually make decisions together and deepen our political cooperation.”