Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sibikha urged his NATO counterparts to extend an invitation to Kiev to join the Western military alliance when they meet in Brussels next week, according to the text of the letter seen by Reuters.

The letter reflects a renewed effort by Kiev to secure an invitation to join NATO, which is part of a “victory plan” outlined last month by President Volodymyr Zelensky to end the war sparked by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Ukraine says it accepts it cannot join NATO until the end of the war but extending an invitation now would show Russian President Vladimir Putin that one of his main goals, which is to prevent Kiev from joining NATO, is not could be achieved.

NATO has declared that Ukraine will join the alliance and that it is on an “irreversible” path to membership. But he has not extended a formal invitation or set a timetable for her joining.

NATO diplomats say there is no consensus among alliance members to invite Ukraine at this stage. Any such decision would require the consent of all 32 NATO member countries.

But Sibiha in his letter, which is written in English, argues that this is the right time to make the invitation.

“We believe that this invitation should be made at this stage,” he writes.

“It will be an appropriate Allied response to Russia’s continued escalation of war, the latest evidence of which is the involvement of tens of thousands of North Korean troops and the use of Ukraine as a testing ground for new weapons,” Sibiha adds.

“I urge you to support the decision to invite Ukraine to join the Alliance as one of the outcomes of the NATO foreign ministers meeting on December 3-4, 2024,” Sibiha wrote.