Ukraine to insist on fulfilling NATO membership promise

Ukraine hopes that the promise of future NATO membership of Ukraine and Georgia will be confirmed in a statement of the NATO summit in June.

"Thirteen years have passed since the Bucharest Summit, at which it was decided that Ukraine and Georgia would be granted [NATO] membership in the future. And now we are in a situation when we insist on fulfilling this promise. Our position is that this promise is fixed, it will be confirmed at the next summit, and the statement of this summit will pave the way to the MAP," Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration Olha Stefanishyna said during an online discussion of the Kyiv Security Forum dedicated to the Europe Day in Ukraine, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

She added that the presence of President Volodymyr Zelensky at the June summit was not decisive for members of the Ukrainian government.

"We focus mainly on substantive issues," she said.

At the same time, Stefanishyna said that next week she would attend a meeting of ambassadors, the leadership of the Alliance in Brussels in order to develop a format in which Ukraine could be physically involved in the summit discussions.

"Of course, we are somewhat disappointed by the public discourse, in which too much attention is paid to diplomatic formats. It is also important for us. But we are not disappointed with the expected results of the summit and plan that the next summit will be dedicated not to discussions, but to decision-making, and this will definitely create a platform on which our President will be present," Stefanishyna summed up.

The next summit of NATO leaders will be held in Brussels on June 14.