Kuleba says Ukraine won’t accept any alternatives to EU candidate status

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitro Kuleba said on Wednesday that his country deserved the EU candidate status and would not accept any alternatives to that.

“I want to reaffirm that we, Ukraine, will not accept a surrogate version of candidate status or an alternative to EU membership, no matter how rosy they may be. We need EU candidate status – not a candidate candidate, not a potential candidate or any other surrogate.

“We are ordinary, modest people who will be satisfied with the usual standard status of an EU candidate, we do not need to think of anything new,” Kuleba said.

He suggested that Ukraine met the criteria for the status.

Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova applied for EU membership shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine earlier this year.

The trio has already submitted a self-assessment questionnaire to gain the candidate status.

The EU is scheduled to decide on the status in the coming weeks.

Some foreign officials said that the EU was not unanimous on the issue and that the countries could be granted the status of a potential candidate