Ukraine de facto becoming NATO member - Defense Minister Reznikov

MOSCOW. July 8 (Interfax) - Ukraine is de facto becoming a NATO member, Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said.

"If we say that Ukraine is not currently viewed by NATO countries as a full member de jure, because this requires a consensus among the NATO countries, we are in fact turning into an Alliance member de facto, because we are on the eastern flank, we're being provided with NATO equipment, we have mastered over 30 NATO standards, and so on," Ukrainian media quoted Reznikov as saying at the Forbes Ukraine Building Together online conference on Friday.

The only thing that concerns Ukraine's partners is Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty, which they would not like to invoke if Ukraine were a NATO member, he said.