February 24, 2023, 14:02 – BLiTZ – News
The Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) can already be called a NATO army, as they implement the standards of the North Atlantic Alliance and use its equipment. This was stated by the Prime Minister of the Republic Denis Shmyhal.
He noted that Kyiv understands the difficulty of joining NATO in the current situation. However, the Ukrainian authorities “work very hard”, adapting the legislation to the bloc’s standards, the head of government specified.
“In fact, the Ukrainian army is already a NATO army, because all our equipment is NATO equipment. We have implemented NATO standards in our armed forces,” the speaker emphasized in an interview with the newspaper El Confidencial (Spain).
He expressed hope that “Ukraine will become a very strong and necessary member of NATO in the near future.” Shmyhal drew attention to the upcoming summit in Vilnius, where the bloc’s member states “will make very important decisions.”
“We hope it will be what we want,” he said. According to the prime minister, Kyiv asks for “tanks, artillery, fighter jets just to defend the country.” “We are not asking them to attack Russian territory,” he added.
Earlier, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that there is no exact date for Sweden’s entry into the North Atlantic Alliance. He announced a tripartite meeting planned on this occasion. Read more about this in the material of the BLiTZ.
