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Zelensky to arrive in Vilnius to attend NATO summit on July 12 — agency

The Ukrainian president said that NATO would adopt a long-term program of military assistance to Ukraine to be implemented regardless of how the conflict with Russia was progressing

The Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky Alexey Furman/Getty Images

The Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky

© Alexey Furman/Getty Images

NEW YORK, July 10. /TASS/. Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky will arrive in Vilnius to take part in a NATO summit on Wednesday, July 12, Bloomberg reported on Monday, citing its sources.

Earlier on Monday, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg confirmed Zelensky’s participation in the Vilnius summit. He said that the Ukrainian president will attend the first meeting of the Ukraine-NATO Council.

He said earlier that Ukraine will not be invited to join NATO during the summit in Vilnius but a signal will be sent to it that the alliance’s doors remain open to it. He also said that NATO will adopt a long-term program of military assistance to Ukraine that would be implemented regardless of how the conflict with Russia was progressing.

NATO’s Bucharest summit in April 2008 yielded a political declaration that Ukraine would eventually become a NATO member. However, the alliance did not provide a Membership Action Plan (MAP), the first step in a prospective member country's legal procedure for joining the organization. In February 2019, the Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian parliament) approved amendments to Ukraine's constitution enshrining its NATO aspirations into law. Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has repeatedly said that Kiev wants to know when it could be admitted to the alliance.

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Ukraine crisis Ukraine NATO

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