FM Kuleba: Ukraine does not need surrogates for EU candidate status

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba has stated that the strategic ambiguity on Ukraine’s European perspective must end.

“Strategic ambiguity on Ukraine’s European perspective practiced by some EU capitals in the past years has failed and must end. It only emboldened Putin. We do not need surrogates for EU candidate status that show second-class treatment of Ukraine and hurt feelings of Ukrainians,” Kuleba posted on Twitter.

As reported, on May 17, President Volodymyr Zelensky discussed consideration of Ukraine's application for EU candidate status scheduled for June with President of France Emmanuel Macron.

Speaking at the closing ceremony of the Conference on the Future of Europe at the European Parliament in Strasbourg on May 9, Macron said that “it would in reality take several years, and most likely several decades” for Ukraine to join the European Union and suggested that an alternative to European integration – the so-called "European political community" – should be created for Ukraine and other EU neighbors.

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