The head of NATO said on Friday the military alliance would unite at a summit next week on how to bring Kyiv closer to joining, while Ukraine’s president drummed up support for its membership bid on a tour of several NATO states.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy visited the Czech Republic and Slovakia a day after holding talks in Bulgaria, and was due to travel to Turkey later on Friday.
In Prague, he won a pledge of support for Ukraine to join NATO “as soon as the war (with Russia) is over”, and in Sofia secured backing for membership “as soon as conditions allow”.
Slovakia said the question of Kyiv’s membership was “when”, not “if”.
At a news conference in Bratislava, Zelenskiy said he expected unity among NATO member states at the July 11-12 summit in Vilnius and wanted concrete steps on Ukraine’s movement to join the alliance.
“There is strength in unity of NATO,” he said, adding that undecided questions over Ukraine’s future in NATO and Sweden’s pending membership were “a threat to the alliance’s strength”.
NATO makes membership pledge to Ukraine as Zelenskiy drums up support | Reuters