(WBBM NEWSRADIO) – U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin -- just back from the NATO Summit in Lithuania --updated representatives of Chicago's Ukrainian community on Friday and backed President Biden’s views on when the alliance of nations should admit Ukraine.
Durbin was asked if he could influence President Biden to get "a more affirmative response to Ukraine's request to step into NATO."
At the Ukrainian Cultural Center in Ukrainian Village, the Senate’s No. 2 Democrat said he supports Ukraine membership in NATO and the European Union.
"But I do believe that as long as a war is underway, it creates a real challenge,” he added. “Will the NATO Alliance stay together if it means that each country is called on to send their own troops?"
In the audience: the Ukrainian Consul General in Chicago, Serhiy Koledov, who says he is encouraged by the support from the U.S. as his country fights a war with Russian invaders.
Durbin told the group of a few dozen leaders of Chicago's Ukrainian, Lithuanian and Polish communities that the U.S. "is not walking away because Ukraine has not reached formal NATO status."
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