A high-ranking official in the Joe Biden administration said the destructive war in Ukraine could have been avoided if Washington had agreed that Kiev would not become a member of NATO. 

When discussing NATO membership for Ukraine in a call with Russian pranksters Vovan and Lexus, Biden’s Senior Director for Europe at the National Security Council, Amanda Sloat, said that the war in Ukraine may have been prevented if the White House had agreed that Ukraine would not join NATO. 

However, the Biden administration rejected that path because it would be an admission that Russia had a “sphere of influence.”

Sloat went on to discuss the April 2022 proposal to end the Russian invasion of Ukraine that requires Kiev to commit to neutrality. “Would that [Ukraine neutrality] have been better to do before the war started [or]… in the Istanbul talks? It certainly would have prevented the destruction and the loss of life,” she explained. 

Moscow has argued since 2008 that expanding NATO to Ukraine would threaten Russia’s national security. Before the invasion, NATO began treating Ukraine as a member by providing aid, training its forces, and holding war games. 

The Kremlin sent proposals to the White House and NATO that would have averted the war if the alliance had agreed not to add Ukraine.