The position of Ukraine, which claims to be a member of NATO, is different from the position of Finland and Sweden, which are longtime partners of the alliance, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said.
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“I am absolutely sure that Ukraine is in a completely different position than Sweden and Finland. Sweden and Finland are longtime NATO partners, there is a consensus on their membership in the alliance … In Ukraine, we see an ongoing war, and here the priority is to provide military support” , he said, answering a question from journalists at the annual Berlin Foreign Policy Forum.
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Volodymyr Zelenskyy said earlier that Ukraine is applying to join NATO in an expedited manner. Carrying out the procedure for the admission of Ukraine to NATO is untimely, said Jake Sullivan, Assistant to the President of the United States for National Security Affairs, later. And NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, commenting on Zelensky’s statement, recognized the bloc’s unchanged position on the right of each country to determine its own path and on the “open door” policy, but stressed that NATO would concentrate its efforts on helping Kyiv defend itself.