"If the allies decide that in Vilnius, on the issue of [Ukraine’s] NATO membership they will simply confirm the open door policy for the 130th time, then for Ukraine this is an unacceptable result of the Vilnius summit," Kuleba said during a live broadcast on social media.
"If they try to offer us in Vilnius some positive things to deepen cooperation with NATO, but at the same time they will not take a single step toward Ukraine's membership in NATO — this is unacceptable for us."
The foreign minister stressed that in Vilnius, NATO should decide "what will happen in terms of security guarantees for Ukraine between ‘now’ and the moment when Ukraine becomes a member of NATO," adding that Kiev "in no case will accept any surrogate decisions."
In late September, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced Ukraine was applying to join NATO in a fast-track manner. NATO Secretary General 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 the alliance would concentrate its efforts on helping Ukraine defend itself.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Moscow was closely monitoring the situation and recalled that Kiev's orientation towards the alliance became one of the reasons for the start of Russia's special operation in Ukraine.