Polish President urges NATO members to accept Ukraine into the Alliance
Polish President Andrzej Duda has urged the NATO members to accept Ukraine into the Allience, but German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron prefer to talk about security guarantees, reports the newspaper Tagesschau.
"Ukraine is waiting for a clear signal, a clear prospect of membership. In July Ukraine will see the "light at the end of the tunnel" which it has been waiting for so much," the Polish President said.
At the same time, Scholz said that Germany and France want to continue consultations on security guarantees for Ukraine. He added that Germany and France, as well as the United States, have repeatedly sought negotiations in order to prepare security guarantees.
"We will continue to do this very intensively. It is clear that security guarantees are needed in a very specific form," Scholz said.
Macron said that the next meeting of the European Council, as well as the NATO summit in Vilnius, will focus on "what the future of collective security might look like." The French President also assured that NATO will provide Ukraine with all the needed support.
On June 3, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that he saw no point in participating in the NATO summit in Vilnius if, after it, Ukraine would not receive specific signals as to when it could join the Alliance.
On June 9, NATO Secretary Stoltenberg said that Ukraine's membership in NATO was almost agreed upon and Putin did not have the right of veto.