By 2023 Ukraine will be ready to apply for membership in the EU and NATO – President

President Petro Poroshenko is convinced that by 2023 Ukraine will be ready to apply for membership in the European Union and NATO.

“In 2023, it would be quite realistic to begin negotiations on joining the EU and receiving the NATO Membership Action Plan,” the Head of State said during a conversation with Kyiv residents. He also noted that the issue of the MAP can be raised already in December 2019 at the NATO Summit in London. Petro Poroshenko also noted that he had recently written about that in a letter to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.

“We will join these most powerful organizations as a country-regional leader. As a country that has already significantly strengthened the eastern flank of the Alliance. As a country that has protected from Russia’s invasion not only itself, but also the whole European civilization,” the President underlined.

According to the Head of State, Ukraine is able to prepare for joining these organizations in the specified period.

“In order to build a future for today’s and coming generations, we, Ukrainians, have to set ourselves ambitious goals. And I believe in the possibility of the European Union and NATO for us, as I believed in the ratification of the Association Agreement, the visa-free regime, the Tomos. When we are together and when we are united, we can achieve everything,” Petro Poroshenko emphasized.

“We have come close to full membership in both the EU and NATO,” he said, adding that if our country continues its chosen course, it will go so far that Russia will lose any chance of returning Ukraine to its zone of influence. “And Moscow is very well aware of it. They also know that we will definitely achieve our European and Euro-Atlantic integration, that is why they are furious,” the Head of State said.

The President stressed that the foundation of statehood built over these years was reached at a very high price. At the same time, he expressed conviction that the worst tests are already behind and we are close to building a strong, successful state capable of ensuring the well-being and security of every Ukrainian.

“Only membership in the European Union and especially membership in NATO permanently and irrevocably guarantees the independence of the state, the security of the country and the security of every citizen. With such a neighbor as Russia one can sleep calmly without a gun under the bed only under the collective protection of the North Atlantic Alliance,” Petro Poroshenko stressed.