Mircea Geoană, Deputy Secretary General of the North Atlantic Alliance, has said that NATO is continuing negotiations on formulating security guarantees for Ukraine before it becomes a member.

"We will work on a package of assistance (for Ukraine. – ed.), and yes, we are conducting multilateral negotiations on the formulation of security guarantees that will ensure consistency and predictability until it becomes a member of NATO," Geoană said in an interview for Romanian news outlet Digi24. 

He said that Ukraine has perfectly demonstrated how heroically it fights and uses Western technology well, radically moving away from the post-Soviet doctrines of warfare.

He also pointed out that Ukraine is "much more closely connected with our alliance and the Western world today." The official added that in Vilnius, NATO leaders "will reach the next level of political relations."

"Discussions are taking place. It is clear that Ukrainian President Zelenskyy and Ukraine want to have a clear schedule of integration. And when the conditions are met, Ukraine has every chance of eventually becoming a member of NATO," Geoană concluded.

Earlier, it was reported that James Cleverley, UK Foreign Secretary, and Zbigniew Rau, his Polish counterpart, supported Ukraine's accelerated entry into NATO.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called on US President Joe Biden to invite Ukraine to join NATO now – even if the country joins the alliance after the war.

Gitanas Nausėda, Lithuanian President, said that at the NATO summit in Vilnius, it will be possible to agree on such obligations to Ukraine that will not disappoint it.

Read also the editorial of European Pravda: Appeal of Ukrainian Civil Society Organisations to NATO Leaders ahead of Vilnius Summit.