The leaders of NATO member states they agreed at the Vilnius summit that Ukraine’s future lies within the Alliance, yet Kiev was not given an invitation or a timetable for NATO membership, which Ukraine sought.

At the same time, NATO lifted the obligation for Ukraine to follow the Accession Action Plan (MAP) effectively removing an obstacle in Kiev’s path to join the North Atlantic Alliance.

“Ukraine’s future lies in NATO”, he cited a declaration agreed today by the leaders of the member states, adding that the Euro-Atlantic integration of Kyiv has surpassed the need for the Accession Action Plan.

“We will be able to extend an invitation to Ukraine to join the Alliance when the allies agree and the conditions are met,” said a statement.

While the leaders did not elaborate on the conditions Ukraine must meet, they emphasized that the Alliance would help Kiev make progress on military interoperability as well as additional reforms in the democracy and security sectors.

“We have made it clear that we will invite Ukraine to join NATO when the Allies agree and when the conditions are met,” Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said at a press conference.

“This is the first time we have used the word ‘invitation’,” he stressed, when asked about the strong displeasure expressed a few hours earlier by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky about the Alliance’s stance. “It seems that there is no will either to invite Ukraine to NATO, or to become a member of the Alliance,” Zelensky pointed out earlier, in an aggressive tweet, considering it “absurd” that his country has not been given an accession timetable.

After the declaration of NATO, from Vilnius, where he arrived for the summit, Zelensky stated that the “NATO will make Ukraine safer and Ukraine will make NATO stronger.”

Stoltenberg also said the Allies also pledged to invest “at least 2%” of their GDP each year in military spending.

“Eleven allies have reached or exceeded this threshold. We expect this number to increase significantly next year.”

NATO now has 31 members after Finland joins in spring 2023.

In August, the training of Ukrainian pilots in F-16 fighters will begin

An 11-nation coalition will begin training Ukrainian pilots to fly F-16 fighter jets in August in Denmark, while a training center is also being set up in Romania, officials said today.

“Hopefully, we will be able to see results early next year,” Danish Deputy Defense Minister Trolls Lund Poulsen told reporters on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Vilnius.

NATO member states Denmark and the Netherlands are leading an international coalition’s efforts to train pilots and support personnel, maintain aircraft and eventually supply Ukraine with F-16s.