Ukraine Wants to Have Clear Understanding of Time Frame for Obtaining NATO Membership Action Plan

Ukraine wants to hear from NATO a timeframe for obtaining a Membership Action Plan (MAP) and the Alliance membership itself.

“We need … to get a clear perspective, and now is the best time to do so. Russia will always try to bargain with the West for Ukraine. Only NATO’s clarity on Ukraine’s future membership in the Alliance will allow minimising Russia’s threat in practice,” Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Vasyl Bodnar said in an interview.

According to him, Ukraine is no longer satisfied with the story that NATO’s door remains open to our country.

“The escalation on the front line and the build-up of Russian troops on the border with Ukraine have shown that Russia will menace us with force or continue to use force as is the case every day on the front until we gain NATO membership,” the diplomat stressed.

According to him, Ukraine should receive practical guarantees of protection, and not only on paper as the Budapest Memorandum. For example, the permanent presence of NATO Navies in the Black Sea region could be such a guarantee.

As a reminder, earlier this week, Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration Olha Stefanishyna said following her visit to Brussels that NATO continued to pursue an “open-door” policy and continued to support Ukraine in security and defence sector reforms, but a decision on Ukraine’s membership was unlikely to be made at the Alliance’s summit in June this year.

Bohdan Marusyak