Before becoming NATO member de jure, Ukraine should become as such de facto

Ukraine's de jure membership in NATO is the country's objective, but, to attain it, Ukraine needs to bring the standards of its armed forces into line with the alliance's standards, Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatseniuk said.

"Can Ukraine become a NATO member? Of course it can. And this is our objective in the context of geopolitics and security," Yatseniuk said at a press conference in Kyiv on Tuesday.

Before becoming a NATO member de jure, Ukraine should become a de facto member, Yatseniuk said. "What is de facto membership? This is the full compliance of Ukrainian armed forces' standards with the NATO standards, from training and logistics to the working language. This is the shortest way toward Ukraine's membership in the alliance," he said.

The government has endorsed an annual target plan of Ukraine-NATO cooperation, which is yet another roadmap in the way of Ukraine's de facto alliance membership, and has passed it to the president for signature, Yatseniuk said.