VLAD WHO?:

The emerging deals were on display this week, with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan traveling to the Ukrainian capital to send a sharp message to Moscow: His country would help expand Ukraine's supply of armed, long-range Bayraktar drones -- a powerful weapon the Kremlin has warned Kyiv not to use.

The growing cooperation with Turkey is just one element of a broader Kyiv effort to develop smaller security and political pacts, given that Ukraine is facing a lengthy and uncertain path to NATO membership -- if it happens at all. The country is also working to cement a new partnership with the U.K. and Poland, highlighted this week when leaders from the three countries met in Kyiv. 

Ukraine's potential NATO membership is at the heart of the current standoff between Russia and Western allies, with Russia claiming it won't remove more than 100,000 troops massed along Ukraine's border until it gets -- among other things -- a hard guarantee that Ukraine will never join the military alliance. 

And while NATO and the U.S. have flatly rejected that demand, the stance has been understood more as a principled defense of NATO's "open door" policy rather than a concrete encouragement of Ukraine's membership.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has acknowledged that reality in describing why he is pushing for stronger ties with individual partners. The willingness, in particular, of Poland and Turkey to confront Russia gives Ukraine some reassurance, helping to offset worries in Kyiv that other regional players, including Hungary and Germany, might be too soft on Moscow because of their economic or political interests.

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