Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has warned European nations that failing to make Ukraine a Nato member would be a “suicidal” mistake.
Nato allies will gather on July 11-12 in Vilnius, Lithuania, for their annual summit, where Ukrainian membership will be one of the main talking points.
The UK, US and France have all signalled their willingness to allow Ukraine to join Nato.
Dmytro Kuleba, the Ukrainian Foreign Minister, has urged allies to allow Ukraine to become a member of the international military alliance as soon as possible.
“After the war ends, it will be suicidal for Europe not to accept Ukraine into Nato because it will mean that the option of … war will remain open,” Mr Kuleba told Axel Springer in an interview on Friday in Kyiv.
“The only way to shut the door for the Russian aggression against Europe and Euro Atlantic space as a whole is to take Ukraine in Nato, because Russia will not dare to repeat this experience again,” he added.
Mr Kuleba warned against an outcome similar to the 2008 Nato summit in Bucharest, when Berlin and Paris rejected Nato membership for Ukraine and Georgia.
“Do not repeat the mistake Chancellor Merkel made in Bucharest in 2008 when she fiercely opposed any progress towards Ukraine’s Nato membership,” he said.
“This decision opened the door for Putin to invade Georgia and then to continue his destabilizing efforts in the region, and then eventually illegally annexing Crimea,” Kuleba said. “Because if Ukraine was accepted in Nato by 2014, there would not [have been] the illegal annexation of Crimea. It would not be war in Donbas, there would not be this large-scale invasion,” he said.
It comes after the UK’s foreign secretary James Cleverly said Britain will support Ukraine in securing fast-track membership of Nato.
Countries aspiring to join Nato must set out a membership action plan, as part of a process agreed in 1999.
The process can take decades and involves annual submissions to the defensive alliance on the candidate nation’s economic and military strength, as well as evidence of democratic reforms.
Mr Cleverly has indicated that the UK would be happy to bypass the process altogether to fast-track Nato membership for Ukraine.
