Official: Ukraine won't join NATO until war ends
Fedir Venislavskyi, the Ukrainian president's representative in the Verkhovna Rada, said on May 28 that the NATO alliance is unlikely to accept Ukraine until the war with Russia ends.
“The level of evaluation of our Armed Forces by the international military experts is very high and only a military-political issue remains,” he said. “We must be realistic.”
Venislavskyi, who also serves as a member of the Parliamentary Committee on national security, defense, and intelligence, also added that no one doubts that Ukraine will be in the military bloc in the future, “not even the Russians themselves.”
According to him, more details on Ukraine's future integration with the alliance could be reached during the upcoming NATO summit on July 11-12 in Vilnius, Lithuania.
On April 3, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said at a news conference that the alliance’s position “remains unchanged and that Ukraine will become a member of the alliance.”
"The first step toward any membership of Ukraine to NATO is to ensure that Ukraine prevails," he said. "I cannot give you an exact date, but what I can say is that allies are extremely focused on ensuring that Ukraine prevails."
The Kyiv Independent news desk
