Vitali Klitschko sends a message to Poland as NATO chief visits the city

TVN24 correspondent in Kyiv Tomasz Kanik asked the city's mayor Vitali Klitschko for a brief message to the Polish people.

"The message to people in Poland. It is a mistake to think the war far away from you doesn't touch you personally," the mayor replied.

"This war, actually, touched millions of people in Ukraine, destroyed lives. And this war has actually destroyed lives of millions of people outside of Ukraine. It's a big tragedy for whole Europe," he added.

Klitschko also stressed that "it's very important to do everything to stop the war and support Ukraine". "Strong Ukraine is protection for Europe against Russian aggression."

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Thursday it was time for NATO to take the political decision to invite Ukraine to join the military alliance, and that Kyiv wanted to know when it would become a member.

The Ukrainian leader told a joint news conference in wartime Kyiv with visiting NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg that a NATO summit in Vilnius in July could become "historic", and that he had been invited to attend.

"Let me be clear: Ukraine's rightful place is in the euro-Atlantic family. Ukraine's rightful place is in NATO. And over time, our support will help you to make this possible," Stoltenberg told reporters.

He pledged continued military support for Ukraine, saying that, so far, NATO allies had trained tens of thousands of Ukrainian troops and provided 65 billion euros ($71.31 billion) of military aid alone.

"NATO stands with you today, tomorrow and for as long as it takes," Stoltenberg stated, before inviting Zelenskiy to the NATO summit in Vilnius in July.

Ukraine's NATO membership bid and robust security guarantees for the country will be high up on the summit's agenda, he added.

In 2008, a NATO summit in the Romanian capital Bucharest agreed that Ukraine would eventually become a member of the alliance.

However, leaders have since stopped short of taking any concrete steps such as giving Kyiv a membership action plan that would lay out a timetable for bringing the country closer to NATO.

"We do not know when this war will end but we know that Russian aggression is a toxic pattern that must be stopped," Stoltenberg said.