NATO is unlikely to invite Ukraine to join at July summit - US Ambassador Smith

The ambassador said this during a telephone conversation with journalists before a meeting of NATO defense ministers, Reuters reports.

"As for the summit this summer, I do not expect the alliance to issue an invitation at this juncture," Smith said.

According to her, Ukraine will receive the necessary support in the fight against the aggressor.

"We've worked very hard since the Vilnius summit last year to move out on a number of steps to continue to help our friends in Ukraine with the necessary reforms inside their own country to move closer to Euro-Atlantic integration," Smith said.

"And we continue to focus first and foremost on supporting them in the current fight and ensuring that they can prevail on the battlefield,” she added.

What is known about Ukraine's accession to NATO

On July 11-12, 2023, a summit of NATO leaders took place in Vilnius. On July 11, the NATO summit in Vilnius adopted a package of decisions regarding Ukraine: the Membership Action Plan phase is canceled, and the country will receive an invitation to join the Alliance after fulfilling the requirements for accession and subject to the consent of all allies.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was outraged by the existence of "conditions" for Ukraine to receive an invitation to NATO.

The Allies agreed on a final communiqué on Ukraine and stated that they remembered the 2008 commitment that Ukraine would become a NATO member. The document also recognized that today Ukraine's path to full Euro-Atlantic integration has gone beyond the requirements of the Membership Action Plan. Allies emphasized that Ukraine is becoming more operationally and politically integrated with the Alliance and has made significant progress on its reform agenda. NATO Foreign Ministers will regularly assess progress through the Annual National Program.

On July 23, Ukraine's then-Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said that Ukraine might be admitted to the alliance during the next NATO summit in the summer of 2024.