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Zelenskiy said NATO's recognition that Ukraine did not need to
follow a Membership Action Plan (MAP) was important, adding that
the former Soviet state had advanced considerably in its
compatibility with the alliance.
"The important result here is the recognition that Ukraine does
not need an action plan for membership on this path (to NATO),"
Zelenskiy told a joint news conference with NATO General
Secretary Jens Stoltenberg during a NATO summit in Vilnius.
Zelenskiy said Ukrainian soldiers had gained experience in
cooperating with various alliance member states.
Thousands of Ukrainian troops have been trained by Kyiv's
Western partners. Ukraine is also heavily dependent on Western
weapons supplies as it fights Russian forces who began a
full-scale invasion in February 2022.
NATO said on Tuesday Ukraine would be welcome in the alliance
but stopped short of naming a date or setting exact conditions.
It also dropped the requirement for Kyiv to fulfil a MAP, a list
of political, economic and military goals that other east
European nations had to meet before joining the alliance. This
in effect removed a hurdle on Ukraine's way into NATO.
Zelenskiy said that he had received positive news on new defence
packages while in Vilnius, where he met the leaders of Britain,
Germany, France, Australia and the Netherlands.
"We can state that the results of the summit are good, but if
there was an invitation, they would be ideal,” he said.
(Reporting by Olena Harmash and Anna Pruchnicka, Editing by
Timothy Heritage)
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