Ukraine's Foreign Minister urges Germany not to block swift accession to NATO

"I urge the German government not to repeat the mistakes made by Chancellor Merkel in 2008 when she clearly expressed opposition to Ukraine's integration into NATO. The result was even more aggressive behavior by Russia - look at Georgia, hostility towards the West, and the current aggression towards Ukraine," said Kuleba.

According to him, there is already an overwhelming majority of NATO members who support Ukraine's faster accession to the Alliance.

In 2008, at the NATO summit in Bucharest, Germany and France opposed Ukraine's membership and offering a Membership Action Plan (MAP) to the country.

Germany wants to postpone Ukraine's NATO membership

At the NATO summit in Vilnius, Germany intends to insist on delaying Ukraine's entry into the Alliance due to concerns that this step could lead to a NATO-Russia war.

A source in the Alliance told The Telegraph that Berlin will use the annual NATO summit in Vilnius to urge other members to focus on security guarantees rather than membership proposals to help Ukraine defend itself without the accession.

"Berlin is cautiously approaching the prospect of immediate membership. It needs a process and time to develop guarantees to effectively block membership. Berlin does not want Vladimir Putin to potentially test Article 5," the source said.

According to Article 5, an attack on one NATO state is considered an attack on all allies.

The United States has decided to abandon the MAP for Ukraine. However, Germany disagreed with the statement on NATO-Ukraine relations.

NATO Summit in Vilnius

At the summit on July 11-12, Ukraine wants to receive a political decision regarding its accession after the war.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg hopes that the leaders of NATO states will confirm that Ukraine joining NATO.

Additionally, Ukraine wants to receive clear security guarantees from the West on paper, until it becomes a full member of the Alliance.