NATO decided to create a joint council with Ukraine

NATO will create a NATO-Ukraine Council (NAC), the first meeting of which will be held in Vilnius on 12 July. About it informed TASS with reference to the official agenda at the summit of the alliance.

After the DPR, LPR, as well as the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions joined Russia in the fall of 2022, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that the country would apply for NATO membership on an accelerated basis. In November, the bloc’s Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that Kyiv should focus not on NATO membership, but on maintaining its independence.

At the same time, on April 21, Stoltenberg informed about reaching a consensus by NATO members that Ukraine should become a member of the alliance. After that in the Kremlin declaredthat the words of the Secretary General only confirm the correctness of the decision to conduct a special operation.

Kiev noted that they expected to receive a political invitation to NATO at the alliance’s summit in Vilnius on July 11-12. On May 15, The Washington Post, citing sources, reported that members of the alliance had decided not to do so at the upcoming summit.

In early June, Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas also statedthat Ukraine will not join NATO as long as hostilities continue on its territory.