LONDON, July 10. /TASS/. Ukrainian authorities are not optimistic on the eve of the July 11-12 NATO summit in Vilnius, according to The Guardian newspaper.
According to it, "Ukraine is increasingly pessimistic about taking a significant step forward in joining Nato as leaders of the western military alliance are set to assemble on Tuesday in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius."
The newspaper says that the Kiev regime "is expected to be offered a package of last-minute ‘enabling security guarantees’ at the two day summit - an assurance from countries such as the US, UK, France and Germany that military aid and training will continue in the long term," while Kiev believes that "Nato membership, carrying with it the defensive prospect of the western nuclear umbrella, is the only realistic long-term guarantee of its security."
The Financial Times reported on Sunday, citing its sources, that the US and Germany were not going to guarantee Ukraine automatic NATO membership without profound reforms.
At the April 2008 Bucharest summit, the alliance approved a political statement that Ukraine and Georgia would become NATO members with time, but refused to present the Membership Action Plan (MAP) to either country, given that this is a first step in the legal procedure on joining the organization. In February 2019, Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada approved constitutional amendments enshrining Kiev’s aspiration to join NATO. Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky repeatedly stated that Kiev needed a specific timeframe of joining the military bloc.