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Zelensky wants to see 'one concrete step' towards Ukraine's admission into NATO

The Ukrainian president also said that he wanted the air defense package to be strengthened

MOSCOW, January 10. /TASS/. Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has admitted that he wants to see "at least one concrete step" taken toward bringing Kiev into the alliance at the upcoming NATO summit.

"As for political decisions, the President of Lithuania has already said everything. I would like to see at least one concrete step towards NATO [membership]," Zelensky said at a press conference with his Lithuanian counterpart Gitanas Nauseda in Vilnius.

Apart from the NATO issue, Zelensky wants to get one other "specific thing" from the summit: "I would like to see the air defense package strengthened in terms of the number of systems we need. It is the systems and specific missiles that fight against Russian ballistic [missiles]," he noted.

At last year’s NATO summit in Vilnius, Zelensky expressed severe discontent with a number of countries for stalling talks regarding when Kiev would join the organization. According to Western media, some US officials as well as other NATO leaders were not happy about Zelensky’s statements. Following the summit, Ukraine was assured that it would be invited into NATO "as soon as the necessary conditions will be implemented." Brussels provides no information on the accession timing. Meanwhile, the organization has repeatedly pointed to the fact that Ukraine’s accession is impossible while the country remains in a state of armed conflict. Kiev has repeatedly declared its desire to join the alliance as soon as possible, and in September 2022 it applied for an accelerated accession to NATO. The Ukrainian military started implementing the conditions the alliance set, one of which calls for officers being able to speak fluent English. However, some of Ukraine’s partners are skeptical that the country will achieve this goal.

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