Zelenskyy To Skip NATO Summit If Leaders Show No Courage In Inviting Kiev To Bloc

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will not attend July's NATO Summit in Lithuania's capital Vilnius if the leaders of the alliance's member states fail to show "courage" to invite Ukraine to join the bloc, Ihor Zhovkva, the deputy head of Zelenskyy's office, said Thursday.

"If there is no result at the Vilnius summit, he doesn't have reason and time to go ... The president will not travel ... to the summit if the leaders will tend to or will show a deficit of courage," Zhovkva told Reuters.

The NATO summit is scheduled to take place in Vilnius from July 11-12 and will be chaired by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.

In September 2022, Zelenskyy announced that Ukraine was applying to be fast-tracked to join NATO.