Kuleba: Ukraine will not accept surrogate decisions on its accession to NATO at Vilnius summit

It will be unacceptable for Ukraine if the Allies once again declare an open-door policy and do not take a single step towards membership at the NATO Summit in Vilnius.

"If the Allies decide that they will simply confirm the open-door policy for the 130th time in the issue of NATO membership, then for Ukraine this is an unacceptable result of the Vilnius summit. If they try to offer us in Vilnius some positive things regarding the deepening of cooperation with NATO, but at the same time do not take a single step towards Ukraine's NATO membership, then this is unacceptable for us," Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba said in a live broadcast on Instagram, Ukrinform reports.

Kuleba explains that Ukraine's position is that in Vilnius NATO should take a step towards Ukraine's membership and resolve the issue of what will happen with security guarantees for Ukraine between now and the moment when Ukraine becomes a member of the Alliance.

"But in no case will we make surrogate decisions... This is the same as with the candidate status: ‘Let's not give a candidate status, let's give some alternative, special status..., half-measures.’ There is no need to repeat the same game at the NATO level. It is necessary to provide something that meets the interests of both NATO and Ukraine," the minister emphasized.

As reported, on September 30, 2022, President Volodymyr Zelensky, Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Ruslan Stefanchuk, and Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal signed Ukraine's application for fast-track accession to NATO.