NATO prepared to back Ukraine war bid, but membership on hold

NATO leaders gathered Wednesday to launch a highly symbolic new forum for ties with Ukraine after committing to provide the country with more military assistance for fighting Russia but only vague assurances of membershipUS President Joe Biden and his NATO counterparts will sit down with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the new NATOUkraine Council a permanent body where the 31 allies and Ukraine can hold consultations and call for meetings in emergency situationsThe setting is part of NATOrsquos effort to bring Ukraine as close as possible to the military alliance without actually joining it On Tuesday the leaders said in their communique summarising the summitrsquos conclusions that Ukraine can join ldquowhen allies agree and conditions metrdquo The ambiguous outcome reflects the challenges of reaching consensus among the alliancersquos current members while the war continues and has left Zelensky disappointedThreat to pull out of grain deal a cause for concernConcerns are growing that Russia will not extend a United Nationsbrokered deal that allows grain to flow from Ukraine to parts of the world struggling with hunger with ships no longer heading to the wartorn countryrsquos Black Sea ports and food exports dwindlingTurkey and the UN negotiated the breakthrough accord last summer to ease a global food crisis along with a separate agreement with Russia to facilitate shipments of its food and fertiliser Moscow insists itrsquos facing hurdles but data shows it has been exporting record amounts Russian officials say there are no grounds for extending grain initiative which is up for renewal on MondayChina raises concerns over NATO expansionChina has renewed its concern about NATOrsquos eastward ldquoexpansionrdquo as the alliance wraps up its summit in Lithuania on Wednesday A joint communique from the Atlantic alliance a day earlier said Chinarsquos ldquostated ambitions and coercive policies challenge our interests security and valuesrdquo while indicating that NATO members ldquoremain open to constructive engagementrdquo with Beijing China issued a strong rebuttal saying it would ldquoresolutely safeguard its sovereigntyrdquoUkrainians training in survival skillsPicAPIn a cramped municipal building in a residential area of the Ukrainian capital a group of people take turns training to shoot using a replica of a machine gun with the help of a weapons training simulator relying on virtual reality The nearly 20 participantsmdashall of them civilians and most of them womenmdashhave never held a weapon beforeThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever