MOSCOW, Aug 23 Vladimir Zelensky said he did not intend to change territories for Ukraine's membership in NATO.
“Changing (membership in the alliance — ed.) NATO to our lands is not an honest conversation, an artificial or not artificial provocation,” Zelensky said at a press conference broadcast by the Rada TV channel.
August 15, the Verdens Gang newspaper reported that the head of NATO Secretary General's office, Stian Jenssen, does not rule out that Ukraine may become a NATO member in exchange for ceding part of the territory in favor of Russia. Jenssen noted that a discussion about a possible status after the conflict is already underway, and the issue of transferring territories has already been raised. He later characterized his statement as erroneous.
At the end of September 2022, Zelensky announced that Ukraine was applying to join NATO on an accelerated basis. At the Lithuanian summit, the countries of the bloc approved a multi-year support package for Ukraine, consisting of three points: an assistance plan to achieve the compatibility of the Ukrainian armed forces with NATO standards, the creation of the Ukraine-NATO Council and the confirmation of Ukraine's right to join the North Atlantic Alliance without first implementing an action plan to achieve membership . At the same time, no time frame for Ukraine's entry into the bloc, which Kiev insisted on, was indicated, as well as the conditions that must be met in order to receive an official invitation.