evidence: Ukraine could potentially join NATO even if parts of its territory remained occupied by Russia, the alliance's former Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said in an interview on Oct. 4. [...] As of late August, Russia was in control of around 27% of Ukrainian territory, President Volodymyr Zelensky said. Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia oblasts are partially occupied by Russian troops. Russia claims to have annexed the whole territory of those regions despite not controlling two regional capitals — Kherson and Zaporizhzhia. Moscow also controls all of Ukraine's Crimean peninsula.