NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has said after a visit to Kyiv on Thursday that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had accepted his invitation to attend the upcoming Alliance summit in July.

“President Zelenskyy and I also discussed the preparations for the upcoming NATO Summit in Vilnius in July. I have invited him to attend the meeting and I'm glad that he has accepted the invitation and will attend the NATO Summit in Vilnius,” Stoltenberg said before the meeting of the Contact Group on the Defense of Ukraine at Ramstein Air Base in Germany.

According to Stoltenberg, he expects that at the summit, NATO members will confirm military support for Ukraine “for as long as it takes,” as well as approve a multi-year program for Ukraine that will help the country fully transition from the era of Soviet doctrine to NATO standards.

On the eve of his visit to Kyiv, Stoltenberg promised that Ukraine would eventually become a member of NATO.

The NATO Summit will be held in Vilnius on July 11-12.