Along with United States President Joseph Biden greenlighting Gazprom’s Nord Stream 2 project, and Secretary of State Antony Blinken giving Ukraine’s concerns short shrift preparatory to Mr. Biden’s meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin (see Part One in Eurasia Daily Monitor, May 27), the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has unexpectedly toned down its endorsement of Ukraine’s ambition to join the alliance in the future, while Germany and France have given Kyiv reason to conclude that their position is weakening vis-à-vis Russia in the “Normandy” negotiations on the war in Ukraine’s east.