Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy will attend the Nato summit in Vilnius next week, Nato Secretary-General Jen Stoltenberg announced on July 7.

Stoltenberg said he expects that Nato leaders will confirm Ukraine’s future membership at the summit on July 11-12, amidst frustration in Kyiv over hesitancy from some members. Zelenskiy had threatened to turn down his invitation unless Ukraine received concrete confirmation of its accession.

Currently the Ukrainian leader is on tour in Central Europe, where he received backing from Prague on Nato membership. His next stop is Slovakia, where he will discuss the summit with Bratislava as well as defence and energy support.

Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda said Ukraine will get “quite a lot” from the summit. Vilnius has been a vocal supporter of Ukraine’s Nato membership.

“I have a feeling that we will, nevertheless, agree on those wordings that will not disappoint the Ukrainians and will say more than what we are used to saying,” President Nauseda said in an interview with BNS, a Lithuanian newswire on July 6.

Stoltenberg also said the meeting in Lithuania will establish a Nato-Ukraine Council which will aim to bring membership closer and strengthen Ukraine’s political partnership with the Alliance and offer much deeper co-operation for “making joint decisions".

However, Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Dmytro Kuleba fired back at the proposal last month, saying: "To establish the Ukraine-Nato Council in Vilnius without taking a decisive step towards membership is like providing a tank without a cannon.”

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