Ukraine needs security guarantees even before joining NATO - OP
Even before Ukraine joins NATO, our country needs security guarantees to quickly cope with Russian aggression and prevent its recurrence in future.
This was stated by Deputy Head of the Presidential Office of Ukraine Ihor Zhovkva during the all-Ukrainian telethon, informs Censor.NЕТ referring to Ukrinform.
"Before Ukraine joins NATO, we already need guarantees of the security of our state in order to quickly cope with Russian aggression and to prevent the repetition of Russian aggression in the future after our victory," he said.
The Deputy Head of the Presidential Office, answering the question whether Ukraine could bypass the MAP stage of membership in the Alliance, said that it was certainly possible.
"At present, we see that Sweden and Finland are moving towards NATO without the MAP instrument. Ukraine is closely following this process and has seen that in fact, when it was said that it was impossible without the MAP, it turned out to be possible. Ukraine takes into account these realities and took them into account when submitting the application on Friday, and it was also noted that 2 states are moving without the MAP," Zhovkva informed.
He noted that Ukraine was not against following the same path to joining NATO as Sweden and Finland.
The Deputy Head of the Presidential Office added that Minister of Foreign Affairs of Canada Melanie Joly had positively reacted to Ukraine's application for NATO membership and called it "an absolutely normal step" that Canada was ready to support.
"We have seen the statement of three Baltic foreign ministers, which also spoke about the support of the accelerated procedure. We have also seen statements of other partners. After the application was submitted, the President of Ukraine spoke, for example, with the Prime Minister of Denmark, and this issue was also discussed. Today, I had a conversation with the President of France. Therefore, the process will continue," - the official said.
Zhovkva noted that earlier, when the process of applying for accession to the European Union was underway, although gradually, but literally every day there were positive news, and in 120 days Ukraine managed to obtain the candidate status.
"Therefore, this process (on joining NATO - Ed.) will also be difficult, not easy, but the President and the entire diplomatic service of Ukraine will work for this - to get the right result," he said.
