Ukraine seeks 'irreversible' offer of possible NATO membership - Ambassador

Head of the Mission of Ukraine to NATO Natalia Galibarenko said this in an interview with Politico, Ukrinform reports.

"We would like to see [allies] fixing an irreversible path of Ukraine at NATO membership," she said.

According to Galibarenko, Ukraine is well aware that the allies do not want to make any political decision to invite Kyiv to NATO membership during the war, so Ukraine is not seeking immediate accession. 

"While waiting for full membership, however, Ukraine wants additional air defense and security commitments from both sides of the Atlantic," said the ambassador.

Galibarenko emphasized that at the Summit in Washington, Ukraine would like to hear wording on membership that would be a step forward from the NATO Summit in Vilnius. 

As Ukrinform previously reported, the NATO anniversary summit, dedicated to the 75th anniversary of the Alliance, will be held in Washington on July 9-11. 

It is expected that the leaders of the North Atlantic Alliance will sign a commitment in Washington to provide Kyiv with military assistance worth 40 billion euros in 2025. This amount corresponds to the amount of annual Western assistance to Ukraine since the beginning of Russia's armed invasion in February 2022.