Moscow, June 12 (Agency) Twenty NATO member countries have supported Ukraine’s membership in the alliance, Deputy Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Ihor Zhovkva said on Saturday. On Saturday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in Kiev. During the meeting, the parties signed a joint declaration, Zhovkva noted. “The joint declaration clearly registers Canada’s support for Ukraine to become a member of NATO as soon as conditions permit. This is the strongest wording among all the G7 countries that are members of NATO,” Zhovkva said on social media, adding that the total number of countries that supported Ukraine’s accession to NATO had reached 20. Zhovkva recalled that Kiev signed a similar document with Romania during the European Political Community Summit in Moldova on June 1.In September 2022, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced that Ukraine was applying to be fast-tracked to join NATO.
NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg reaffirmed the bloc’s unchanged position on the right of each country to determine its own path and on its “open door” policy but noted that the alliance would concentrate its efforts on helping Ukraine defend itself. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Moscow was closely monitoring the situation, recalling that Kiev’s orientation toward the alliance was one of the reasons for the start of Russia’s military operation in Ukraine last year.On Saturday, NATO Deputy Secretary General Mircea Geoana said that there was currently no consensus within the alliance on Ukraine’s entry into the bloc.