North Atlantic Treaty Organisation chief to make first visit to Ukraine next week

Stoltenberg was speaking to reporters near the western Ukrainian city of Lviv on September 21.

Former North Atlantic Treaty Organisation Secretary General, Anders Fogh Rasmussen had earlier said that Ukraine would have to achieve a number of criteria before it could join the military bloc. After meeting the president, the alliance’s top diplomat will be greeted by Ukraine’s prime minister, Arseniy Yatsenyuk, and the speaker of the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine’s parliament, Volodymyr Hroisman.

Kiev sees Moscow’s manoeuvring as revenge for its decisive shift towards the West following the ouster of Kremlin-backed president Viktor Yanukovych by mass protests.

“We consider the door (to NATO) is open”, Poroshenko told a news conference, although he said Ukraine was not ready to join.

North Atlantic Treaty Organisation has responded sharply to the Ukraine crisis and Russia´s annexation of Crimea by increasing its readiness posture and rotating troops and equipment through its ex-communist eastern members to ease their fears that Moscow wants to reassert its hold over them.

Flying by helicopter over Ukraine, Stoltenberg stressed what he called the non-military nature of the joint exercises despite excitement among Ukrainian officials and a brass band playing the 1980s hit “The Final Countdown” as activities got under way.

The move is the latest attempt to stop a conflict that has killed some 8,000 people since April 2014 and left nearly 18,000 wounded, according to United Nations figures. The Secretary General will meet the President, Mr.