Ukraine has announced that it will join the NATO Cyber Defense Cooperation Center (CCDCOE). The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine wrote about this on its Twitter.
A photo is attached to the post, which shows that the Ukrainian flag was hoisted next to the flags of other European countries near the CCDCOE headquarters in Tallinn, Estonia.
The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry expressed gratitude to the NATO countries for the offer to join the cooperation center, as well as to the Estonian authorities “for their support and assistance on the way to NATO CCDCOE”. According to RBC, on the website of the organization, Ukraine is still listed among the partner countries of the CCDCOE.
The NATO Cyber Center was established in 2008 to expand “information sharing and cooperation” between members of the alliance and their partners. In particular, the CCDCOE conducts cybersecurity exercises and prepares instructions “for activities in this area.”
Back in 2021, Ukraine applied to join the NATO cyber center, but then Hungary – according to the European Pravda publication – blocked the Ukrainian application.
On May 15, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky, during the Copenhagen Democracy Summit 2023, called for a positive decision on Ukraine’s application to join NATO at the alliance’s summit in July.
“The time has come to make a positive decision on NATO membership, this should be done already at the July summit of the alliance,” Zelensky said.
Earlier, The Washington Post wrote that the NATO countries decided not to send an invitation to Ukraine to become a member of the North Atlantic Alliance at the summit in Vilnius, which will be held in July.
According to the publication, Eastern European countries want to see concrete steps for Ukraine’s entry into the alliance, including specific dates. At the same time, the United States and a number of Western European countries advocate only small steps in this direction.
Soon, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg expressed the opinion that the countries of the organization at the summit in Vilnius on July 11-12 will declare their support for Ukraine’s entry into the alliance.
At the same time, Yegor Chernev, head of the permanent delegation of the Verkhovna Rada to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, expressed the opinion that Ukraine could receive an invitation to NATO with specific dates at the summit in Washington in 2024, and not in Vilnius in 2023.
“An invitation with specific dates, I think, is not entirely realistic at this particular summit. But I hope that the next one, which will be in Washington, it will be … the number one question, ”he said.
At the same time, Chernev hopes that Kyiv will be able to receive “security guarantees” in Vilnius. “Security guarantees until the time when we become full-fledged members of NATO. This, I think, is the maximum that we can get today at the summit in Vilnius,” he said.
According to him, Kyiv wants to receive “assurances” from Western countries about joining NATO after the end of the armed conflict.