President's Office believes that Ukraine can join NATO faster, like Finland and Sweden

OLENA MAZURENKO — MONDAY, 3 OCTOBER, 2022, 01:53

Ihor Zhovkva, Deputy Head of the Office of the President, has said that Ukraine is watching Finland and Sweden, countries that are fast-tracking to NATO without a Membership Action Plan, and it also wants to join the Alliance under a similar procedure.

Source: Ihor Zhovkva, Deputy Head of the Office of the President during the national joint 24/7 newscast

Quote: "Two countries - Sweden and Finland - are moving towards NATO without a Membership Action Plan [MAP]. Ukraine is following this process closely and has seen that in fact, when it comes to what is impossible without a MAP, it turns out that it is possible. Ukraine is taking these realities into account, and Ukraine took those realities into account when it applied on Friday. Ukraine is also not averse to following this path."

Details: Zhovkva also noted that the statement of the presidents of 9 European countries should be interpreted as support for Ukraine's membership in NATO.

He said that in this statement, they referred to the Alliance Summit in Bucharest in 2008, and not to the application for NATO membership that Ukraine submitted a few days ago.

Quote: "It's simple. Indeed, a decision was made at the Bucharest Summit which has not disappeared anywhere, where it is written that Ukraine will become a member of NATO. The word ‘someday’ does not appear in it. It says: Ukraine will become a member of NATO, the first stage or one of the stages should be providing it with a Membership Action Plan."

He noted that the Bucharest Summit statement had been confirmed at the Madrid Summit (2022) when a corresponding provision was repeated in NATO’s new strategic concept for the next 10 years , namely that Ukraine will become a member of NATO.

Background:

• On Friday 30 September, Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced that Ukraine had signed an application for accelerated accession and called on Western partners to implement the security guarantee proposals prepared by Ukraine, which were set out in the Kyiv Security Compact.

Journalists fight on their own frontline. Support Ukrainska Pravda or become our patron!