NATO officially agrees to remove MAP for Ukraine, but no invitation yet — Stoltenberg

The North Atlantic Alliance has agreed to remove the NATO membership action plan stage for Ukraine, but has not yet extended an invitation to join, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said at the summit in Vilnius.

"We will give Ukraine an invitation to join NATO when the allies agree and the conditions are met," Stoltenberg stated.

He added that NATO members have confirmed that Ukraine will become a member of the Alliance.

"And they agreed to remove the MAP requirement. This will change Ukraine's path from a two-stage process to a one-stage one," the NATO Secretary General said.

Stoltenberg announced that the launch of the format of the Ukraine-NATO Council was approved. The inaugural meeting is scheduled for tomorrow, July 12.

He noted that on the same day a package of many elements will be presented, bringing Ukraine closer to NATO membership.

The Secretary General of NATO stated that multi-year aid programs will be implemented for Ukraine, which will help to transition from the standards of the Soviet army to Western ones.

Ukraine has repeatedly said that it wants to receive a political invitation to the Alliance at the NATO summit in Vilnius., although it appreciates that membership is out of the question until the end of the war.

Today, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced that he was going to the NATO summit in Vilnius and criticized the allies for their indecision regarding Ukraine's membership in the Alliance.