In an announcement on Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his country had applied to join NATO via an "accelerated application process."
As a result of Russian President Vladimir Putin annexing four partially occupied Ukrainian regions, Zelenskyy, his prime minister, and the speaker of parliament signed the paper work online.
Ukraine has applied for a fast-tracked accession in order to move the current alliance from "de facto" to "de jure," or recognized legally, Zelenskyy, wearing combat fatigues, says.
“We are de facto allies. This has already been achieved. De facto, we have already completed our path to NATO. De facto, we have already proven interoperability with the alliance’s standards,” Zelenskyy said in the video on the Telegram app.
“We trust each other, we help each other, and we protect each other. This is what the alliance is: de facto. Today, Ukraine is applying to make it ‘de jure’ under a procedure consistent with our significance for the protection of our entire community, under an accelerated procedure,” he added.
Ukrainian interactions with NATO members already meet the standards for membership set by NATO "on the battlefield as well as in every other aspect of the country's international relations," Zelenskyy said.
1st October 2022
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