Zelenskyy pushes for NATO membership invite ahead of summit
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy again called on Tuesday for NATO to invite Ukraine to become a member, offering a strongly worded statement as the coalition leaders gathered for a summit in Lithuania.
Ukraine "deserves respect," Zelenskyy said in a statement posted on Twitter.
![PHOTO: NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, U.S. President Joe Biden, British Prime Minster Rishi Sunak and other NATO leaders, in Vilnius, Lithuania, July 11, 2023.](https://i.abcnewsfe.com/a/e1710aa8-3858-4ed6-a163-4b1237c009cc/nato-members-sum_hpEmbed_20230711-073843_3x2.jpg)
"It's unprecedented and absurd when time frame is not set neither for the invitation nor for Ukraine's membership," he said. "While at the same time vague wording about 'conditions' is added even for inviting Ukraine. It seems there is no readiness neither to invite Ukraine to NATO nor to make it a member of the Alliance."
![NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, President Biden, Lithuanian President Nauseda, British Prime Minster Sunak, Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau, Turkish President Recep Erdogan and others ahead of a NATO leaders summit, in Lithuania July 11, 2023.](https://s.abcnews.com/images/International/biden-class-photo1-rt-ml-230711_1689076711068_hpMain.jpg)
Keeping Ukraine out of NATO amounts to a "motivation" for Russia to "continue its terror," he said.
"Uncertainty is weakness," he added.
Russia rebutted the statement a short while later.
"This is potentially very dangerous for European security. Indeed, it is fraught with great dangers, and those who will make this decision should be aware of that," Dmitry Peskov, a Kremlin spokesperson, said when asked to comment on Ukraine's possible fast-track admission to the coalition.