KIEV, September 02. /ITAR-TASS/. Ukraine may be granted a status of a US non-NATO ally this year, Ukraine’s parliament-appointed Minister of Justice Pavlo Petrenko said on Tuesday, adding that this issue would be in focus of a forthcoming meeting between Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and US President Barack Obama.

“Due to the situation our country is currently in, we have a perspective of being granted the status of a US ally rather promptly. I think this will take place already this year,” he told a briefing. According to Petrenko, this status will make it possible for Kiev to dramatically expand military-technical cooperation and “obtain a mechanism allowing to buy weapons” that Ukraine needs.

He said the status of a US non-NATO ally would be an “intermediate stage” in Ukraine’s drive towards full-fledged membership in the North Atlantic Alliance.

Earlier, Mikhaylo Koval, a deputy chief of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, announced Kiev’s plans to seek such a status. “Our state hopes for the United States’ assistance and wants to be granted a special status of its major non-NATO ally,” he said.