Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba repeated his country's demand to become a member of NATO on Tuesday — the same day that Finland became the alliance's 31st member, thereby doubling the US-led military organisation's border with Russia.
"We are all happy for Finland today and Finland's accession is a clear message that the time to revise old strategies and perceptions has come," Kuleba said, standing alongside NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg at the alliance's headquarters in Brussels.
He added: "There is no better way of ensuring Euro-Atlantic security as a whole than the eventual membership of Ukraine in NATO."
Speaking just prior to a meeting of NATO Foreign Ministers (a meeting to which Ukraine's Foreign Minister was also formally invited), Kuleba reiterated his demand for NATO countries to accelerate their delivery of ammunition and weapons systems to Ukraine as the country continues its struggle to win its war against Russia.
"I came here to NATO to speed up deliveries of what has already been pledged to Ukraine," he said. "Primarily artillery ammunition, infantry armoured vehicles, and personnel armoured carriers [are] everything Ukraine needs for a successful counteroffensive."
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In his own comments, Stoltenberg refrained from explicitly affirming Ukraine's future membership of the alliance, although he did suggest that arms deliveries would be accelerated and called for closer integration between Ukrainian and NATO armed forces.
"I welcome the fact that NATO allies and partners are delivering also heavy armour, modern battle tanks, and I look forward to the meeting later on today, when we can discuss how to sustain and further step up the urgent support to Ukraine," Stoltenberg said.
He added: "But I also look forward to our discussions among allies on how we can develop more long-term program for assistance, for support, to ensure that Ukraine can move closer to the Euro-Atlantic family, to our reliance, with more interoperability, transition to NATO doctrines, equipment standards."
