The Secretary General of the North Atlantic Alliance, Jens Stoltenberg, once again ruled out the possibility of granting Ukraine NATO membership during a full-scale war with Russia.
He said this at the Brussels Forum organized by the German Marshall Fund on Wednesday.
The Secretary General of NATO emphasized that all members of the Alliance agree with the future membership of Ukraine, which was stated at the 2008 summit in Bucharest and since then "has been repeated many times."
Regarding the path of Ukraine's accession to the Alliance, Stoltenberg admitted, "NATO has different opinions on this issue, and the only way to make decisions in the Alliance is consensus."
"Consultations on the way forward and how to satisfy Ukraine's desire to become a NATO member are now underway. No one can say what the final decision will be at the summit in Vilnius," he added.
Stoltenberg noted that NATO is now focused on "ensuring the victory of Ukraine as a sovereign and independent state, because if Ukraine does not win, then there is nothing to discuss."
"Acquiring membership (in NATO) during the war is not on the agenda. The question is what will happen when the war ends one way or another," he said.
At the same time, the Secretary General of the Alliance noted that it is during a full-scale war that Ukraine becomes closer to the Alliance, because it adopts Western doctrines and management standards, and also switches to Western weapons.
We will remind, following the results of the summit of Ukraine and the Northern European states, President Volodymyr Zelenskyi said that Ukraine should become the next member of NATO after Sweden joins the Alliance.
