Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Monday that he hoped the NATO summit in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, would confirm that Ukraine is already a “de facto” member of the military alliance and work out an “algorithm”. for Kiev to officially join it.
“When we applied for NATO membership, we spoke frankly: in fact, Ukraine is already in the alliance. Our weapons are the weapons of the alliance. Our values are what the alliance believes in… Vilnius has to confirm all this”, Zelensky pointed out in a video address.
“We are still working on the text, i.e. the specific words of such confirmation, but we already understand the fact that Ukraine will be in the alliance and we are working to make the accession algorithm as clear and fast as possible,” he added.
European diplomats stressed that Ukraine’s biggest Western allies were still finalizing a joint framework that would pave the way for long-term security guarantees for Kiev, and could wait until the end of the NATO summit this week to announce them.
The 31-member alliance is meeting in Lithuania on Tuesday, with the main aim of offering Ukraine some sort of path to membership, though talks are ongoing over when to issue a formal invitation, what conditions Ukraine will would have to comply and how its progress should be tracked.
Zelensky said more arms shipments to Ukraine would also be discussed at the meeting.
“I am sure there can be positive news regarding weapons for our Vilnius men,” he commented.
Source: CNN Brasil
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