America just took NATO membership off the table for Ukraine

America just ruled out NATO membership for Ukraine.

JD Vance, the US Vice President, said it a few hours ago, in an interview with the 2WAY platform.

He says quote "They are not in NATO."

That's the sitting US Vice President, on the record, closing the door.

And he didn't stop there. He said America doesn't even have a formal alliance with Ukraine. Not an ally. A partner.

So what's the difference? An ally can lean on a mutual defence pledge. A partner can't.

For years Ukraine's whole pitch to the West has rested on one idea: NATO membership, eventually. Vance just took that off the table, out loud.

He did soften it a bit. He called Ukraine a worthy country and said Washington will keep working with Kyiv on some things, even where their interests don't match.

Then he turned to the refineries.

He says quote "raise energy prices for Americans? No."

Here's why that matters. Ukraine has spent months hitting Russian oil refineries. It's one of the only ways Kyiv can damage Russia's war machine without long-range Western weapons pointed at Russian cities.

Donald Trump has been pushing Volodymyr Zelenskyy to stop for weeks. He says the strikes are pushing up diesel prices everywhere, including in America. Earlier this month he called the renewed strikes a disgrace and said Ukraine had plenty of other targets.

So now it's not just Trump saying it. It's the Vice President too, and he's tied it straight to the price Americans pay at the pump.

And this is landing in the worst week for US-Ukraine relations since Trump came back into office.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy told a group of US senators a day ago that Washington still hasn't explained why Starlink and Starshield internet speeds were slowed down for Ukraine's military. Or why US warnings missed three recent Russian ballistic missile strikes. Two senators set up that meeting — Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat, and Thom Tillis, a Republican.