Ukraine needs security guarantees before entry into NATO - Zelensky

MOSCOW. April 17 (Interfax) - Ukraine needs effective security guarantees before it enters into NATO, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky said.

"Our common stance at the summit in Lithuania - the stance of all member states - can be as ambitious as required for European security. I am confident about that. There is need for effective security guarantees for Ukraine. i.e. for the world order based on rules, before it joins the alliance," the Ukrainian media quoted Zelensky as saying in a video address on Saturday.

In turn, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba said that practical steps towards the Ukrainian membership in the alliance should be made at the NATO summit in Vilnius and Ukraine would not accept any surrogate decisions.

"If the allies decide to reaffirm 'the Open Door policy' in the NATO membership context for the 130th time in Vilnius, this result of the summit would be unacceptable for Ukraine. If they try to offer us something positive for deepening cooperation with NATO in Vilnius without taking a single step towards the Ukrainian membership in NATO, that would be unacceptable for us either," the Ukrainian media quoted Kuleba as saying in a live stream on a social network.

Ukraine believes that NATO should take a step towards its membership in Vilnius, Kuleba said. In his words, Kiev is expecting allies to decide at the summit "what would happen from the angle of security guarantees for Ukraine between now and the moment when Ukraine becomes a NATO member."

"We will not accept any surrogate decisions," Kuleba said.

The Verkhovna Rada's call on NATO member states for expediting Ukraine's admission to the alliance is not linked to the approval of the Membership Action Plan, he said.

"I have always believed that we should skip this stage [the NATO Membership Action Plan]. We reset the whole story when proper historical circumstances occurred and a new membership application was filed. The MAP topic is being scrapped, it has been scrapped," Kuleba said,

In his words, "the MAP was invented to slow down Ukraine's accession to NATO."

The Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada appealed to NATO member states and the NATO Parliamentary Assembly on April 10 for expediting Ukraine's entry to the alliance.

In particular, the Verkhovna Rada urged the parliaments of NATO member states and the NATO Parliamentary Assembly to fulfill the decision of the NATO summit held in Bucharest in 2008 in regard to Ukraine's membership.