Kyiv to meet NATO membership criteria within 5-6 years

"At least this is the timeframe stipulated by the standards of the transition period due to be determined by NATO. When we spoke about the fulfilment of the entire range of the criteria, we talked that Ukraine would have to meet them within five to six years. All the new NATO member states have had precisely a period of that length," Bozhok said. According to the diplomat, Ukraine's integration process has two directions. The first one is European integration, which includes the entire list of criteria outlined in the Association Agreement with the EU (economic reforms, the reformation of the social sector, law-enforcement). The second one includes defence and security criteria, the level of development of Ukraine’s Armed Forces in order to be compatible with NATO member states' armies.