Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba: if Ukraine does not receive EU candidate status, it will mean that the EU wants to deceive Ukraine

Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba believes that if Ukraine does not receive the status of a candidate for EU membership in the summer, it will indicate an attempt by the European Union to deceive Ukraine.

He said this in an interview with the Financial Times.

"If we do not get candidate status, it means only one thing — that Europe is trying to deceive us. And weʼre not going to swallow it. Ukraine is the only place in Europe where people die for the values on which the EU is founded. And I believe that this should be respected," Kuleba stressed.

He also reminded that only three months ago Ukraine did not even have the prospect of EU membership, and now the European Union is already discussing how long it will take.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs also stated that Ukraine would like to liberate all its occupied territories in case of victory in the war.

"In the first months of the war, the victory for us looked like the withdrawal of Russian troops to the positions they held until February 24 and retribution for the damage. Now, if we are strong enough on the military front and win the battle for Donbas, which will be crucial for the further dynamics of the war, of course, victory for us in this war will be the liberation of the rest of our territories," he said.

According to Kuleba, only Russiaʼs military defeat can force it to unblock Ukrainian ports and restore the economy.

• On February 28, after the start of Russiaʼs full-scale invasion of Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky signed an application for Ukraineʼs accession to the EU.
• On April 8, in Kyiv, the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen presented the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, with a questionnaire on Ukraineʼs membership in the European Union.
• On May 9, Ukraine completed the second part of the questionnaire to obtain the status of a candidate for membership in the European Union.