Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said he envisioned Ukraine receiving an invitation to join NATO before the bloc’s summit next year in the Netherlands between June 24 and 26.

“I clearly see an opportunity for that to happen before the next summit – NATO summit – in the Netherlands in 2025. I think when there’s a will there’s a way, and the way is actually clear,” Kuleba told CNN on Tuesday, Sept. 3

Kuleba said that it’s about sending a clear signal through an invitation to join the bloc, rather than having Ukraine “[become a] NATO member tomorrow.”

“This is just clarifying about [sic] the signal, about removing this … constructive ambiguity. It’s not constructive anymore. We want to make it very clear we are not talking about becoming [a] NATO member tomorrow, we are talking about extending [an] invitation to Ukraine today,” he said.

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However, President Volodymyr Zelensky said in June, after this year’s NATO summit, that Ukraine likely will not receive an invitation to the bloc before the war ends.

The CNN interview took place hours before he tendered his resignation amid a major government reshuffle, making it the last interview Kuleba gave to foreign media as Ukraine’s foreign minister.

At the interview, Kuleba also commented on Russia’s attack on Poltava Tuesday, which saw at least 51 dead in one of the deadliest single strikes throughout the war in Ukraine. He said he came from the Poltava region and that “this geography is very familiar to [him].”

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He added that the attack is the reason why Western air defense deliveries to Ukraine “must be expedited.”

“I don’t know how many more tragedies like this have to occur for all promises to be fulfilled, and for new commitments to be made,” Kuleba said.

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