Poland, UK support Ukraine’s streamlined accession to NATO

The Polish and UK foreign ministers on Wednesday voiced their support for a simplified accession of Ukraine to NATO, which Kyiv has been pushing for on the eve of the upcoming summit in Vilnius.

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Ukraine's accession to NATO, the ministers said, is likely to be accelerated akin to Finland and Sweden since the Ukrainian army already has equipment provided by the Alliance, Voice of America reports.

James Cleverly, the UK foreign minister, said the two countries were granted fast-track accession to NATO because Allies recognised that they were "highly capable military powers".

"Poland's position here is very clear. We want to bring Ukraine as close as possible to the Alliance in the institutional dimension. We want to adapt Ukraine's military and political structures to those that are standard in the Alliance," his Polish counterpart, Zbigniew Rau, was quoted as saying.

Mr Cleverly added the Ukrainian military has "a lot of experience in using standard NATO equipment, NATO doctrine and NATO tactics", making it possible to expedite the accession.

"I think we have to recognise how much their military capability has improved over the last 18 months."

NATO is due to hold a summit in Lithuania on 11 and 12 July where leaders are expected to discuss Ukraine's membership.

Earlier this week, Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy called on US leader Joe Biden to invite Ukraine to NATO now even if membership does not come until after the war.