"We need to be very clear that there will be truly serious consequences if [Putin] escalates this conflict," Council President Ivo Daalder tells Alicia Menendez.
"Though the Kremlin has long portrayed Ukraine's membership in NATO as a red line, there is no need to fear Russia's response to Kyiv's accession to the alliance," Paul Poast writes.
While many in the West see the outcome of the war as determined by military action and shifts in battlefield positions, in Ukraine, long term integration with the West is the most important goal.