VILNIUS -- Despite failing to receive a detailed plan or timeline to join NATO, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba says the military alliance's members have made the country's path to joining the alliance "shorter" and "absolutely irreversible" at a summit in Vilnius.
Speaking to RFE/RL in an interview from the Lithuanian capital late on July 11, Kuleba admitted disappointment with the general wording of a NATO declaration after the first day of the summit left "mixed feelings," but decisions such as cancelling the need for a Membership Action Plan (MAP) and the creation of the Ukraine-NATO Council were big strides, showing NATO members are "much more confident" Ukraine will be a member of the alliance at some point.
"The cancellation of the MAP is a really big story. Six months ago, no one even dared to talk about it," he said, adding that the decisions made at the summit had been "sharpened to accelerate our membership in NATO."
In its declaration, NATO leaders said they "recognize that Ukraine’s path to full Euro-Atlantic integration has moved beyond" the need for the MAP and that "we will be in a position to extend an invitation to Ukraine to join the Alliance when Allies agree and conditions are met."
The vague statement ruffled the feathers of many senior officials in Ukraine, including President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who called the wording "absurd."
SEE ALSO: NATO Disappoints Ukraine With No Set Timetable For AccessionKuleba said there was some "very honest and frank" conversations during the early hours of the summit and while he characterized the lack of details in the declaration as "a bad apple that spoils the rest," he quickly added that Kyiv will continue to work toward membership "to make sure that the path to NATO does not extend to many years."
"Our position is that all conditions exist for inviting Ukraine to become a member of NATO. We have fundamentally different positions here. Their position is that there are some conditions that must be met. We will work with allies to make sure all of this does not freeze in its tracks and keeps moving forward," he said.
"Everyone -- including our partners -- understands that the strongest possible guarantee of making sure there's never a war in Europe again is Ukraine's membership in the alliance. All other guarantees are fine, but none will replace NATO membership," he added.