Ukraine would like to record the irreversibility of acquiring the status of a NATO member at the upcoming Alliance Summit in Washington, which will take place on July 9-11, head of the Ukraine Mission to NATO Natalia Halibarenko said.

"We would like to see [allies] fixing an irreversible path of Ukraine at NATO membership," Halibarenko said in an interview with Politico on Wednesday. "We are not asking for something extraordinary," she added.

Halibarenko reiterated that Kyiv is not looking for immediate accession to NATO, conceding that it's problematic to admit a country at war with Russia that doesn't control all of its territory. While waiting for full membership, however, Ukraine wants additional air defense and security commitments from both sides of the Atlantic.

According to her, Ukraine is well aware that the allies do not want to make any political decision about inviting Kyiv to join NATO during the war, so Ukraine is not seeking immediate accession. "We would like also to see that the alliance will recognize that we achieved a substantial progress in implementing reforms," the ambassador said.

Halibarenko also emphasized that at the Summit Ukraine would like to hear such formulations regarding membership that would be a step forward relative to the NATO Summit in Vilnius.

The publication notes that Halibarenko spoke at a time when dozens of foreign policy experts called on NATO not to follow Ukraine's lead at the summit, warning that this would endanger the United States and its allies and lead to a break in the coalition. The panel argued that Ukraine's admission to NATO would trigger collective defense under Article 5 of the alliance if Russia attacks Ukraine in the future. Halibarenko stressed that Kyiv is well aware of the concerns of NATO countries, so it is building its own structure on the basis of bilateral pacts with allied countries. "That is why we will be continuing with concluding bilateral security agreements," the ambassador said.