From our news desk: Ukraine To Focus On Reforms Before Any Possible NATO Bid
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has said his country would not seek NATO membership "immediately" but would instead focus on implementing reforms.
Poroshenko, speaking in Kyiv after talks with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg on July 10, said the government would "build a genuine program of reforms" in order to meet NATO requirements for possible future membership.
Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Ivanna Klympush-Tsyntsadze said the same day that Ukraine seeks "partnership" with NATO.
"We have something to contribute to this system," she said.
For his part, Stoltenberg expressed NATO's support for Ukraine and called for the complete implementation of the Minsk agreements aimed at ending the conflict in eastern Ukraine between government forces and separatists receiving military, economic, and political support from Russia.
He reaffirmed that NATO members do not recognize Russia's 2014 annexation of the Ukrainian region of Crimea.
Poroshenko and Stoltenberg are meeting today in Kyiv. From Interfax:
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg are meeting at the Ukrainian
presidential administration in Kyiv on Monday morning.
"I am glad to welcome the sincere friend of Ukraine, NATO
Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, to Kyiv. He will be participating in
the meeting of the NATO-Ukraine Commission," Poroshenko said on Facebook
on Monday morning.
Here's video of Tillerson speaking in Ukraine yesterday:
We are now closing the live blog for today, but we'll be back again tomorrow morning to follow all the latest developments. Until then, you can catch up with all our other Ukraine coverage here.