Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will take part in the NATO Summit in Vilnius next week as part of the launch of a new format for Ukraine's cooperation with the Alliance.

"President Zelenskyy will join us for the inaugural meeting of the new NATO-Ukraine Council. This will be a platform for crisis consultation and decision-making, where we all sit as equals to address security concerns," NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Friday at a press conference ahead of the NATO Summit.

Earlier, the Alliance announced that the first meeting of the NATO-Ukraine Council, a new format for cooperation between Kyiv and the Alliance, would take place on 12 July, day two of the Vilnius Summit.

At the Vilnius Summit, Ukraine seeks to obtain specific decisions concerning its accession to NATO.

President Zelenskyy had previously stated that he understood that Ukraine could not join NATO during the war, but saw no point in participating in the NATO summit in Vilnius unless Ukraine received specific signals as to when it could join the Alliance.

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