In an article for Foreign Affairs publication, the Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba stated that at the July NATO summit in Vilnius, the Alliance must make a political decision: present a schedule for Ukraineʼs accession or undertake to do so by the end of the year.
Kuleba believes that such a decision will be a signal for the Russian Federation — "the game is over: Ukraine is part of the West, it is on NATOʼs doorstep and will soon enter the door."
At the same time, he emphasized that it is not about immediate accession, but real steps towards it.
According to Kuleba, Ukraine already meets the accession criteria, so there is no need for an "Action Plan on Membership". Finland and Sweden had such experience.
"It is time to bring clarity instead of repeating the open door policy and allowing Putin to exploit its ambiguity. NATO should resist the temptation to make additional demands on Ukraine that will further delay its membership," noted Kuleba.
He is also counting on the decisions of NATO members regarding the guarantees for Ukraine before the accession and their continuation after — without taking into account those enshrined in the North Atlantic Treaty.
- In April 2023, Dmytro Kuleba went to the Ukraine-NATO Commission in Brussels for the first time since 2017. There, he held talks on preparations for the Vilnius NATO summit in July. Since 2017, Hungary has blocked Ukraineʼs participation in such ministerial meetings.
- After that, the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia advocated providing security guarantees to Ukraine even before it joins NATO. They note that this should be done immediately after the war in order to prevent new aggression.