Zelensky: Ukraine has created anti-corruption infrastructure with no analogues in Europe

The Head of State said this in an interview with journalists from the Normandy Four countries and the United States – Washington Post, Liberation, Funke Media, Novoe Vremya, and Novaya Gazeta, the President’s press service informs.

“No country in the world is completely free of corruption, so this criterion cannot be the main one in the context of resolving the issue of Ukraine's accession to NATO,” the President noted.

Commenting on the claim that Ukraine must eliminate corruption before receiving an invitation to the Alliance, Zelensky said: “It is easy to accuse Ukraine of corruption. But let's be honest: no country is completely free of corruption, corrupt officials or oligarchs. But over the last few years, Ukraine has created an anticorruption infrastructure that has no analogues in Europe or, perhaps, even around the world".

Ukraine has a number of independent anticorruption bodies, such as the National Anti-Corruption Bureau or the High Anti-Corruption Court, the President stressed.

"Ukraine has the status of almost a member of the EU and almost a member of NATO. The country already lives by European standards. And the military command centers meet NATO requirements," he said.

The fact that Ukraine is not invited to NATO is underwhelming and sends a negative signal to other candidate countries, the President noted.

"The message is that the path to NATO is extremely difficult. This, in turn, creates a vacuum that Russia is glad to fill,” Zelensky explained.

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