NATO won't offer official membership invite to Ukraine at July summit — Stoltenberg
NATO leaders will not invite Ukraine to join the alliance at the summit in Vilnius, stated NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg during a briefing after a meeting with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
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"At the Vilnius summit and during the preparations for the summit, we are not discussing issuing a formal invitation. What we are discussing is how to move Ukraine closer to NATO," he said.
According to Stoltenberg, at the July Vilnius summit, the vision of the future of Ukraine as an "independent democratic member of the Euro-Atlantic family" will be outlined, and the allies will discuss Ukraine's aspirations for membership.
The NATO Secretary General emphasized that a just peace cannot simply be the freezing of hostilities.
"We all want this war to end. But a just peace cannot mean freezing the conflict and accepting an agreement dictated by Russia," he said.
On June 1, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that the issue of Ukraine's accession to NATO has dragged on too long.
Last Friday, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dmytro Kuleba, said that NATO should simplify Ukraine's entry by canceling the need for it to go through the Membership Action Plan.