Poland’s Senate calls for giving Ukraine NATO membership
Poland’s Senate, the upper house of the parliament, adopted a resolution on Friday calling for security guarantees to Ukraine and an "extraordinary procedure" of it joining NATO, Polska Radio reports.
- Subscribe to LIGA.net in English on Twitter
"A year into the horrific war, we know that Ukraine, by standing up to Russia, is defending Europe and is a key link in protecting the continent from aggression from the East," the resolution reads.
The senators added that "Ukraine today has the strongest army on the continent with extraordinary combat experience", it is rapidly integrating NATO equipment and applying military operational art and tactics that have been "developed over decades among Western allies".
The resolution notes that Ukrainian defenders need "real support", achieved through closer political and military cooperation with NATO member states.
In that regard, the Vilnius Summit of the Alliance should become "an important stage in Ukraine's preparation for full membership", it stresses.
The Polish Senate believes that Ukraine's accession to the Alliance should be a "political decision", as in the case of Finland and Sweden, resulting from a strategic analysis of "challenges and threats beyond the Alliance's eastern border".
In addition, the resolution calls on NATO to use the same "extraordinary procedures" for Ukraine as for Finland and Sweden’s accession.
"Although Sweden is still outside the Alliance's structures, the Allies have decided that they will defend it. The Senate of the Republic of Poland calls on NATO member states to apply a similar emergency procedure to Ukraine," the document says.
Earlier, 95 Estonian legislators signed a joint statement in support of Ukraine's accession to NATO.
