Kuleba: Ukraine to Not Accept Surrogate Alternatives to EU Candidate Status

Ukraine does not accept any alternatives to granting candidate status for accession to the European Union.

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Dmytro Kuleba, announced this during a conversation with journalists.

"We will not accept any surrogate option or alternatives to candidate status, whatever they may be. We need EU candidate status. No candidate for a candidate, no potential candidate or another surrogate, nothing else. We have been playing this game for a long time. We know how it works," Kuleba said.

According to him, Ukraine meets the criteria for candidate status. Although, there are still skeptics in Europe who are trying to impose an alternative.

"I want to thank more than 200 NGOs. I heard that this is the largest amount of organizations in Ukrainian history to unite in an advocacy campaign. They signed a letter to foreign governments that Ukraine should be granted candidate status in June," said Kuleba.

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

"I do not see any rational arguments from our skeptics," he said.