On Friday, Stoltenberg said that Kiev's future was in the Euro-Atlantic family and that all member states had agreed that "Ukraine will become a NATO member." The Russian Foreign Ministry said the alliance was dangling the much-coveted membership before Ukraine to get it to go all out against Russia.
"A country in the midst of a military conflict cannot possibly join NATO. It is unacceptable. I think it would never be ratified by the member states. It is very irresponsible to raise false hopes about it," Kollar was quoted as saying by Slovak news website.
The lawmaker explained to the media on the sidelines of a European conference of parliamentary speakers in Prague that Ukraine joining NATO before it could settle things with Russia would trigger the collective defense clause. He said there would be no objections if there were peace in Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced in late September 2022 that Kiev was applying for fast-track membership to NATO. Stoltenberg, commenting on Zelensky's statement then, reiterated the alliance's commitment to the right of each country to determine its own path and to NATO's "open door" policy, but stressed that the alliance would concentrate its efforts on assisting Kiev regime to defend itself.