While Stoltenberg celebrated Kiev’s closeness to NATO, Kuleba said it was almost a friendly army.

NATO Secretary General Jens StoltenbergUkraine was celebrated on Wednesday as “ever closer” to the alliance, while Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro KulebaHighlighting that Ukrainian forces are becoming “practically a ‘real’ NATO army”. “Technical Capacity, Management, Approaches and Principles.”

“All allies agree that Ukraine will become a member of the alliance, and now we need to discuss the way forward: reform efforts and how NATO can support their implementation.”Stoltenberg recalled in a joint statement delivered by the two in Brussels on Wednesday ahead of the first meeting of the NATO-Ukraine Council within the framework of the Foreign Minister.

The ministers, together with their Ukrainian counterpart, will talk about urgent needs on the battlefield and reaffirm their solidarity with Kiev “not just in words, but in actions,” says Stoltenberg, who expressed his “great appreciation.” Ukraine. The political leadership was brave and forced the Russian forces to retreat and inflicted “huge losses” on the invaders. “These are great victories for Ukraine, but we should not underestimate Russia,” he said.

In this sense, Kuleba emphasized that the success of Ukraine is of interest not only to Kiev, but to the entire Euro-Atlantic community, as he considers that “protecting Europe without Ukraine is a futile task.” The army was “the strongest and bravest in Europe.”

“We are increasing our interoperability with NATO and becoming a de facto ‘real’ NATO military in terms of technical capability, management, approaches and policies,” he stressed, celebrating Ukraine and allies sitting down this Wednesday. “Equally” at the table at the first meeting of the NATO-Ukraine Council.

At the meeting, Kuleba will urge ministers to create a common defense area to “ensure stability of defense industries, increase productivity and work as a complete complex for the Euro-Atlantic community”.

Acknowledging that increasing arms production would require “very technical and professional” work in this area, he assured that there was no “reluctance” on the part of allies to maintain Ukraine’s long-term support. He was angry at those who believed Kiev would have to make concessions to Moscow for a peace deal: “It’s always easy to give in to others, but they have to do it themselves first,” he told the meeting.

(with information from Europa Press)