Ukraine continues moving towards NATO membership - Zelensky

Ukraine welcomes the decision made at the NATO summit that Ukraine will become a member of the Alliance with the Membership Action Plan (MAP) as an integral part of the process, President Volodymyr Zelensky has said.

"We are grateful to NATO members for such a logical decision, which fully confirmed the decision of the 2008 Bucharest NATO Summit," said Zelensky, Ukrinform reports with reference to the president’s press service.

At the same time, Zelensky noted that the decision of this year's Summit “lacks specific time frames” for the next steps in Ukraine’s rapprochement with NATO.

In a joint communiqué issued following the NATO summit on Monday, NATO leaders welcomed the significant Euro-Atlantic reforms that Ukraine has already implemented and reaffirmed their willingness to continue to provide practical support to Ukraine in implementing security and defense reforms.

“We will continue the course of security and defense reforms in order to meet the standards of interoperability with NATO member states even more," Zelensky said.

NATO leaders praised Ukraine’s significant contributions to Allied operations, the NATO Response Force, and NATO exercises. They also stressed that military cooperation and capacity building initiatives between Allies and Ukraine, including the Lithuanian-Polish-Ukrainian Brigade, further reinforce this effort.

"Ukraine, not being a member of NATO, is already making a significant contribution to Euro-Atlantic security. Confronting Russian aggression in the east, during which, unfortunately, Ukrainian soldiers continue to perish, is our invaluable contribution to the security of the entire Euro-Atlantic area," said Zelensky.

As reported, the NATO summit was held in Brussels on June 14 to consider ways to further strengthen the transatlantic partnership and develop the Alliance by 2030.

NATO leaders reaffirmed the continuation of NATO’s open door policy and the Euro-Atlantic aspirations of Ukraine and Georgia, and called on both countries to continue carrying out reforms, bringing them closer to NATO.

iy