BRUSSELS, October 1. /TASS/. NATO finds it hard to predict when it can invite Ukraine to join the alliance, Secretary General Mark Rutte said.

"We have to look at all these developments over the next six months, a year, two years, also in the context of possible [Ukraine's] future NATO membership. But it is very difficult at this stage to predict exactly how can one and the other be connected," he said at his first press conference at the alliance's headquarters in Brussels.

According to Rutte, at the moment it is necessary to focus on efforts to settle the conflict. "This is the paradox: the more we help Ukraine at the moment, the sooner it will end," he said, adding that it was up to Kiev to decide when and how to engage in peace talks.

Mark Rutte became NATO's 14th secretary general on Tuesday. He replaced Jens Stoltenberg of Norway, who led the alliance for a record ten years.