Chairman of the NATO Military Committee Petr Pavel (C) visits the Mihail Kogalnieanu military airbase, 250 km east of Bucharest, Romania, July 13, 2017. (Xinhua/Cristian Cristel)
KIEV, Nov. 7 (Xinhua) -- Ukraine has become the de-facto eastern flank of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said on Wednesday, according to the presidential press service.
"Without a strong Ukraine, which has turned into the de-facto eastern flank of NATO, there is no talk of a stable Euro-Atlantic space," Poroshenko said at the international high-level conference "The Hybrid War Decade: Lessons Learned to Move Forward Successfully."
In 2014, Kiev revoked Ukraine's non-aligned status when pro-West authorities came into power in the country, paving the way for its membership in military blocs.
Ukraine has set a 2020 deadline by which it will have come into full compliance with NATO standards across a number of areas, especially in security, defense, justice and anti-corruption.
In September this year, the Ukrainian parliament sent a presidential bill to the Constitutional Court on including into the Constitution Ukraine's intention to join NATO.
