Ukraine’s foreign minister: Ukraine doesn’t accept an alternative to EU membership candidate status

Ukraine doesn't accept any alternatives to granting the candidate status for accession to the European Union

Minister of Foreign Affairs Dmytro Kuleba stated this during a conversation with journalists, European Pravda reports.

"We will not accept any surrogate versions or alternatives instead of candidate status, whatever they may be. We need EU candidate status.

No candidate status to become a candidate, no potential candidate status, or other surrogates. Nothing else. We have been playing this game for a long time; we know how it works," Kuleba said.

According to the foreign minister, Ukraine meets the criteria for candidate status, but there are still skeptics in Europe trying to find an alternative.

"I would like to thank more than 200 civil society and non-governmental organizations, and I'm told that it is the largest number of organizations in history to unite in an advocacy campaign and sign a letter to foreign governments that Ukraine should be granted candidate status in June," Kuleba emphasized.

The minister added that candidate status was the latest psychological barrier for EU skeptics.

"I don't see any rational arguments from our skeptics," he said.

As reported by Rubryka, the European Parliament will recommend that the EU heads of state and government grant Ukraine the status of a candidate country for EU membership and purchase weapons for Ukraine to repel russian aggression.

As Rubryka previously reported, on April 18, President Volodymyr Zelensky handed over the completed first part of a questionnaire to obtain Ukraine's EU candidate status to the head of the European Union's mission, Matti Maasikas.

This questionnaire was handed over to the Ukrainian side personally by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen during a visit to Kyiv on April 8.

On May 9, Zelensky announced that Ukraine had completed the second part of the questionnaire.

The President signed the application for Ukraine's membership in the European Union on February 28.

Ukraine expects to receive EU candidate status in June.