US Ambassador to Ukraine: Ukraine is not ready to join NATO

Ukraine is not yet ready to join NATO, - said the US special envoy for Ukraine's Kurt Volcker in an interview. “I respect Ukraine, but I don’t think that it is ready to join NATO, or that NATO was ready to accept it in the current situation,” Volcker said.

“Both the United States and the European Union and Russia must understand that Ukraine is an independent state, and no one can say when it can become a NATO member, since this is exclusively Ukraine’s decision, but this does not mean that Ukraine is close to receiving NATO invitations ”.

Volkekr testified that during a visit to Kiev on August 23-24, the head of the Pentagon, James Mattis, brought defensive weapons for Ukraine, but without any other details. “Defense ministers do not come empty-handed and the US Secretary of Defense has brought military equipment for the Ukrainian army,” the US Ambassador added.

Mattis said on Thursday after talks with Ukrainian President Poroshenko that Washington is considering presenting a lethal weapon to Ukraine and that he will return to the United States from Kiev with "specific recommendations" in this case. Poroshenko, in turn, said that he was pleased with the negotiations that are underway with the Americans on this issue.

The US special envoy to Ukraine has confirmed that his country will never recognize the annexation of Crimea. At the same time, he stressed that only Kiev should regain control over the lost territories. "The restoration of Ukraine's sovereignty should take place within the framework of the Ukrainian security system, Kiev should talk today about how people should live in eastern Ukraine, because this is a very dramatic story," said Kurt Volcker.

In an interview, the envoy also commented on the Zapad-2017 Russian-Belarusian military exercises starting in mid-September. According to him, they force the West to prepare for various scenarios of events.

“I think that Russia's military maneuvers force us to prepare for some kind of military aggression, and Western society should be ready for any development of events and should develop its own security system and work on it together,” Volcker said.