MOSCOW, July 3. /TASS/. /TASS/. The preconditions for Ukraine’s accession to NATO could only be defined after the armed conflict in the country is over, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said in an interview for Poland’s Rzeczpospolita.

"During my recent meetings with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, we have once again agreed that the alliance must not become a side to the [Ukrainian] conflict at any circumstances. This is why we cannot answer the question on Ukraine’s accession to NATO while there is war going in Ukraine. Only after that, we all - and I think that there will be 32 allies together with Sweden in the bloc by that point - we and Ukraine will decide on the conditions of its accession to the alliance," Pistorius underscored.

Meanwhile, the Ukrainian Permanent Representative to NATO Natalya Galibarenko said that the absence of an invitation to NATO after the July 11-12 summit in Vilnius would become a "bad signal" for Kiev but not an "end of the world" for Ukrainian authorities.