Durbin highlights challenges to Ukraine's NATO membership during Chicago visit

CHICAGO - Much of the coverage of this week's NATO summit in Lithuania focused on President Joe Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

However, Illinois Senator Dick Durbin also made the trip.

He was back in Illinois Friday morning, visiting the Ukrainian Cultural Center in Ukrainian Village. Durbin met with Ukrainian, Lithuanian, and Polish community leaders, highlighting what was accomplished at the summit, including the steps taken to help facilitate Ukraine's prospective membership to NATO.

But he said there's just one thing holding it up.

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"I support Ukraine as a member of NATO, as a member of the European Union. Unequivocally. But I do believe that as long as a war is underway, it creates a real challenge," Durbin said.

Senator Durbin has Lithuanian roots. His mother was born there and moved to the U.S. when she was 2 years old.

He was the first member of his family to visit Lithuania in 1979, before taking his first elective office.