Ukraine No Longer Wants Map Status of NATO and Only Needs Membership - Stefanishyna

According to Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration of Ukraine Olha Stefanishyna, given all the circumstances after February 24 and half a year of the war, NATO's potential decision on the membership action plan for Ukraine is no longer as important as before - only direct membership.

She said this in an interview with "European Pravda" when asked whether Ukraine was still interested in this after Finland and Sweden joined NATO, skipping the MAP.

"If Ukraine had been offered a MAP before February 24, we would have been as satisfied as possible with this decision, even happy. We would have believed that we fulfilled the requirement of our Constitution and it was the only correct decision. Today, the MAP within NATO would be equivalent to the decision of the Bucharest Summit in 2008," Stefanishyna explained.

According to her, the compliance of the Ukrainian security and defense sector and other structures with NATO standards shows that Ukraine has already implemented many of the Alliance practices de facto. In addition, its military is now gaining unique combat experience that the army of NATO allies does not have.

"You mean only membership? - Only membership," answered Olha Stefanishyna.

"The main perks, interesting opportunities in the conditions of this war, we could get only as the Alliance member, covered by Article 5. The rest we are accomplishing by ourselves. It does not require the involvement of high-ranking politicians or ministers today. We are cooperating with NATO. But in matters related to security guarantees, only membership can change the situation," the Deputy Prime Minister explains.

In her opinion, sooner or later, Ukraine will definitely join NATO - "if NATO exists until such a window of opportunity opens."

She still does not see the point in discussing Russia's objections to Ukraine's NATO accession, considering that the prospect of negotiations with the Kremlin is currently invisible. Nobody knows whether these issues will be a matter of debate.

"If you paid attention, Russia does not demand it and does not discuss it at all for half of the wartime. The full-scale war nullified all possible narratives of the Russian Federation - both about the threat from NATO and protecting the Russian-speaking population. Many things the Alliance countries were actually afraid of, saying they should not annoy Russia. Therefore, we do not take any statements of the Russian Federation too seriously and will be ready to return to the discussion after we liberate our territories," said the Deputy Prime Minister.