By Oleksandr Kozhukhar
(Reuters) -Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday he expects the NATO summit in Vilnius to confirm that Ukraine is already a "de facto" member of the military alliance and work out an "algorithm" for Kyiv to officially join it.
"When we applied for membership of NATO, we spoke frankly: de facto, Ukraine is already in the alliance. Our weapons are the weapons of the alliance. Our values are what the alliance believes in. ... Vilnius must confirm all this," Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address.
"We are still working on the wording, that is, on the specific words of such confirmation, but we already understand the fact that Ukraine will be in the alliance, and we are working to make the algorithm for gaining membership as clear and fast as possible."
European diplomats said that Ukraine's largest Western allies are still finalising a joint framework that would pave the way for long-term security assurances for Kyiv, and may wait until the end of a NATO summit this week to announce them.
The 31-member alliance meets in Lithuania on Tuesday, aiming above all to give Ukraine some kind of path to membership, although negotiations are ongoing over when to issue a formal invitation, what conditions Ukraine would have to meet and how its progress should be tracked.
Zelenskiy said further weapons supplies for Ukraine in its war against Russia would also be discussed at the summit.
"I am sure that there could well be positive news regarding weapons for our men from Vilnius," he said.
(Reporting by Ron Popeski and Oleksander Kozhukhar; Writing by Ron Popeski and Lidia Kelly; Editing by Mark Porter and Stephen Coates)
