KYIV - President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Friday that he understood that Ukraine would not join the NATO military alliance while the war with Russia was still going.

"We are adequate people and understand that we will not pull any NATO country into a war," he said during a joint briefing in Kyiv with Estonian President Alar Karis.

"And that's why we understand that we won't be a member of NATO while this war is ongoing. Not because we don't want to, because it's impossible."

(Reporting by Dan Peleschuk; editing by Tom Balmforth)