President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky stated that he was waiting for the adoption of a security guarantee package at the NATO summit in Vilnius, Interfax-Ukraine reports.
“We need something more than the current format of relations. We want to understand when Ukraine is in NATO. We want security guarantees. At the same time, we do not prepare an alternative to membership and do not consider it as a compromise,” he said on Thursday In Kiev, after a meeting with the Alliance Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.
“We will be in the alliance. A package of guarantees on this path – this is what we would like to establish in Vilnius. We will prepare everything for sure,” Zelensky said.
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According to him, from NATO “We expect steps. Steps forward and very specific. We would like to understand for ourselves, for our society that Ukraine will be in NATO”.
Stoltenberg invited Zelensky to take part in the NATO summit. “I am grateful for the invitation to visit Vilnius, but it is important that Ukraine receives an appropriate invitation. It is impossible to imagine the security of the Euro -Atlantic space without Ukraine,” the president said.
For his part, Stoltenberg expects that in Vilnius, “the alliance members will confirm their support to Ukraine, which will be provided as long as it will be necessary.” “The place of Ukraine is rightfully in NATO. We will make it possible,” he said.
“I expect that the NATO allies will agree on the further strengthening of the NATO package for Ukraine with even greater support,” said the Secretary General.