WASHINGTON, July 4. /TASS/. More than 60 foreign policy experts wrote an open letter urging NATO to refrain from promises to accept Ukraine as a member ahead of the alliance’s upcoming summit in Washington, the Politico newspaper wrote.

According to the analysts, advancing Kiev’s NATO membership would backfire, "turning Ukraine into the site of a prolonged showdown between the world’s two leading nuclear powers."

They also claim that "the closer NATO comes to promising that Ukraine will join the alliance once the war ends, the greater the incentive for Russia to keep fighting."

Moreover, the experts warned that Kiev’s membership may trigger NATO’s Article 5.

"The challenges Russia poses can be managed without bringing Ukraine into NATO," the document says.

The NATO summit will be held in Washington on July 9-11 to mark the 75th anniversary of the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty in 1949. The summit will discuss the creation of a new structure to assist Kiev in Germany's Wiesbaden and building a "bridge to NATO" for Ukraine to become a member of the alliance when it has the political will to do so.