Kuleba: Refusal to grant EU candidate status to Ukraine would mean fraud

Ukraine expects to get the status of a candidate for EU membership this summer, Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said, Report informs referring to Financial Times.

Responding to French president Emmanuel Macron’s prediction that it could take “several years, in truth undoubtedly several years” for Ukraine to join the EU, Kuleba said: “Three months ago this country did not even have a membership perspective. Now they are discussing how long it will take.”

The most important thing was for Ukraine to be given membership candidate status by the EU in June. “Then we will sit down with you and resolve the rest of the issues. How. When, and so forth.”

Macron and some other leaders have proposed forms of associate membership but Kuleba said these could not be a substitute for Kyiv.

“If we don’t get the candidate status, it means only one thing, that Europe is trying to trick us. And we are not going to swallow it.

“Ukraine is the only place in Europe where people are dying for the values the EU is based on. And I think this should be respected.”