Ukraine will hold NATO Vote as soon as Membership Criteria are Met

Ukraine will hold a referendum on joining Nato once it has met certain criteria for membership, President Petro Poroshenko has said.

At a joint news conference with Lithuania's president, Mr Poroshenko said he had "worked out the criteria", but gave no further details.

Last week, a Kremlin official called for "a 100% guarantee" that Ukraine would not think about joining Nato.

Lithuania's president (L) is the latest leader to 
offer military assistance to Petro Poroshenko

Ukraine has been fighting pro-Russian separatists for most of the year.

Mr Poroshenko did not say what the criteria for Ukraine's membership were.

Nato itself says: "There is no fixed or rigid list of criteria for inviting new member states to join the alliance."

However, countries are only admitted to Nato if it believes they will "contribute to security and stability in the North Atlantic area".

Analysts say Ukraine, destabilised by the fighting, is therefore unlikely to be seen as viable by Nato.

President Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov has accused Nato of breaking a historic promise by gradually approaching Russia's borders.

He told the BBC that the alliance was attempting to break the "balance of power".

Three countries from the former Soviet bloc joined Nato in 1999, followed by several more in 2004, including Lithuania and the other Baltic states.

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