The head of the parliament's committee on national security and defense, Anatoliy Hrytsenko, has said that Ukraine's chance of being granted the NATO Membership Action Plan is extremely slight.
He announced this on Wednesday, in response to the statement made by U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine William Taylor that Ukraine could be refused the MAP at the alliance's summit in December.
"We had a real chance of receiving the MAP several years ago… Now this chance is zero. I take this statement by the U.S. ambassador as a realistic assessment of what is happening in Ukraine and in NATO itself," Hrytsenko said.
He also said that Ukraine would not hear a positive decision at the NATO summit in April next year.
He said that nothing prevents Ukraine from upgrading its armed forces.
Hrytsenko headed the Ukrainian Defense Ministry from February 2005 until December 2007.
