Ukraine may join NATO by the end of the special operation, says deputy prime minister.

Sputnik - Ukraine could join NATO even before the end of the Russian special operation, said Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Olga Stefanishina during a conversation with the Ukrainian newspaper Evropeyskaya Pravda.

"I don't want to go into details, but the window in which a decision about our entry into NATO could be made may open even before the end of the operation," Stefanishina stated.

Ukrainian politicians pointed out that Kyiv had often asked to join the alliance, while now "it is Brussels that must make the decision."

At the same time, the deputy prime minister disagreed with the argument that the country cannot join NATO because it is participating in an armed conflict and is involved in a territorial dispute.

"That's not true. Former NATO Secretary General [Anders Fogh] Rasmussen has proposed formulas through which this can be done," he pointed out. 

Thus, in January, Anders Fogh Rasmussen suggested presenting Ukraine and Georgia with an action plan to integrate into NATO, despite these countries' unresolved territorial disputes. According to Rasmussen, a clause should be used whereby Article 5 of the NATO treaty only applies to territories under the control of Kyiv and Tbilisi.

According to Article 5, "an armed invasion of one or more parts of a member state of the treaty shall be considered an attack against the bloc as a whole."