Finland's leaders announced Thursday their support for the country applying to join NATO, the world's biggest military alliance.

"During this spring, an important discussion on Finland's possible NATO membership has taken place. Time has been needed to let Parliament and the whole society establish their stands on the matter," Finnish President Sauli Niinisto and Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin said in a joint statement. "Time has been needed for close international contacts with NATO and its member countries, as well as with Sweden. We have wanted to give the discussion the space it required."

"Now that the moment of decision-making is near, we state our equal views, also for information to the parliamentary groups and parties. NATO membership would strengthen Finland's security," they added. "As a member of NATO, Finland would strengthen the entire defence alliance. Finland must apply for NATO membership without delay. We hope that the national steps still needed to make this decision will be taken rapidly within the next few days."

The Finnish Parliament will now take up the issue, with a vote expected to be held early next week.

The announcement marks a major shift in Finland's traditionally neutral policy, triggered by Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine. Finland shares an 830-mile border with Russia, and recent opinion polls show Finnish public support for joining NATO has surged to 76%.

Neighboring Sweden is also considering applying to join the alliance.

-ABC News' Ines de la Cuetara

Despite President Joe Biden saying Monday that Russian President Vladimir Putin doesn't have a "way out," State Department spokesperson Ned Price insisted the U.S. is providing the Kremlin with a "very simple" and "straightforward" exit strategy through genuine diplomacy.

"The State Department, this administration, provided an off ramp well before President Putin decided to launch this war against Ukraine … it has not closed," Price said.

The problem, Price said, was that Russia continues to show no interest in that route.

Price repeated that one area where the U.S. was not willing to give over any ground was the potential expansion of the NATO alliance.

"NATO's open door means an open door. That is important to us and it is nonnegotiable," he insisted.

-ABC News' Shannon Crawford

President Joe Biden said the war in Ukraine is an opportunity for American farmers to step in to address shortages caused by the invasion.

"We can make sure the American agriculture imports will make up for the gap in Ukrainian supplies," Biden told a group at a farm in Illinois on Wednesday.

Biden said to the farmers, "With Putin's war in Ukraine, you're like the backbone of freedom."

The president pointed the finger at Russia for preventing Ukraine from shipping wheat to the rest of the world.

Biden noted: “Ukraine was the world's largest producer of wheat and corn and cooking oil -- but wheat, the largest. … Ukraine says they have 20 million tons of grain in their silos right now ... because of what the Russians are doing in the Black Sea, Putin has warships, battleships preventing access to the Ukrainian ports to get this grain out, to get this wheat out."

“The brutal war launched on Ukrainian soil has prevented Ukrainian farmers from planting next year's crop and next year's harvest,” he added.

-ABC News' Ben Gittleson

One person has been killed and six others are injured from shelling in the Solokhi village in Belgorod, Russia, according to Belgorod Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov. A 14-year-old boy is among the injured, the governor said.

This area is less than 7 miles from the Russia-Ukraine border.

Gladkov said the shelling originated from Ukraine's side of the border and that this was the most serious incident since Ukrainian forces began firing on the region. Ukrainian authorities have not confirmed that Ukrainian forces are firing on Russia's side of the border.

White House national security advisor Jake Sullivan hinted Thursday of more sanctions coming against Russia in the "next week or two" aimed at targeting ways Moscow is evading sanctions already imposed.

“Where our focus will be over the course of the coming days is on evasion,” Sullivan said Thursday at the Economic Club of Washington. “As Russia tries to adjust to the fact that it’s under this massive economic pressure, what steps do they take to try to evade our sanctions and how do we crack down on that? And I think we'll have some announcements in the next week or two that identify targets that are trying to facilitate that evasion both inside Russia and beyond."

When Sullivan was asked whether sanctions will automatically be lifted if a negotiated peace deal between Russia and Ukraine is worked out, he appeared cautious with his words, saying, “a lot of that depends on what the shape and scope” of the agreement is.

“A lot of it depends on what the Ukrainians, in consultation with us and the Europeans come to agree to," Sullivan said. "You know, we're not going to do a deal over the head of the Ukrainians where we give a bunch of sanctions relief to Russia. But if some measure of sanctions relief were built in to some credible diplomatic solution led by the Ukrainians, that's something that we would happily discuss."

But Sullivan said Russian oligarchs shouldn't expect to ever get back their yachts and other assets seized under sanctions that have been imposed, saying the ultimate goal is "not to give them back” once the war is over.

“The president is actively looking at how we can deal with the fact that as we seize these assets, our goal is not to give them back. Our goal is to put them to a better use than that," Sullivan said. "But I'll be careful in what I say today because there's an ongoing kind of policy process around how we end up dealing with that question. But, rest assured, that the goal is not just to sit on them for a while."

-ABC News' Justin Gomez