MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 10th June, 2023) Ukraine will receive an action plan on achieving NATO membership at the upcoming Vilnius summit of the alliance, and the country will manage to join the bloc within two years after the end of the current conflict, Ukrainian Defense Ministry said on Saturday, citing Deputy Defense Ministry Volodymyr Gavrilov.
"In his comments, Volodymyr Gavrilov noted that at the summit in July, NATO countries "will agree on a certain procedure for our accession, which will be formalized," the ministry said on Telegram.
Gavrilov also said that despite the consensus decision-making and the veto power of NATO members, there will be no "great problems" for Ukraine's accession, adding that the country "will get what it wants in a certain format."
"Already now, at the summit in Vilnius, Ukraine should understand that after the war, say, within a year or two, after certain procedures are carried out, we will become members of NATO," he was quoted as saying by the Defense Ministry on Telegram.
In May, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said it was clear that Ukraine would not join NATO until the conflict was over, but the country hoped to receive an invitation from its Western allies to join the alliance as soon as possible. Last month, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Ukraine would eventually join the bloc as all NATO members supported its ambitions. However, the idea was rejected by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
In September 2022, Zelenskyy announced that Ukraine would apply for accelerated NATO membership. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Moscow was closely monitoring the situation, recalling that Kiev's orientation toward the alliance was one of the reasons for the start of Russia's military operation in Ukraine last year.
