Poroshenko calls on NATO to invite Ukraine to join at Vilnius summit

Poroshenko was quoted by the EU party's website.

"I will be very disappointed if the Ukrainian delegation brings a photocopy of the 2008 Bucharest summit from the Vilnius summit. I don’t want to hear any more about it. I don’t want to hear any more about the open door in the resolution. If the door is open – let us in. And if you do not allow entry, then the door is not open," the fifth president said.

He emphasized that Ukraine's membership in the EU and NATO is the only scenario that guarantees sustainable peace.  

"The question is how to win the war and not lose the peace. And in this situation we have three scenarios. The first scenario is the only one that all of Ukraine believes in. This is membership in the EU and membership in NATO. It means democracy, it means reforms, it means investment, it means post-war reconstruction. This means that Ukraine is integrated into the largest security organization in the world. And this is called the “EU and NATO scenario," Poroshenko said.

He stated that today about 90% of Ukrainians support this. "I want to remind you that even at the beginning of the full-scale war, I was accused that the war started because we made changes to the Constitution together with our partners in 2019, which provide for mandatory membership in the EU and NATO," Poroshenko said.

"There is a second scenario that is also offered to us. These are the so-called “security guarantees”. Whatever we do there, it will be a photocopy of the Budapest Memorandum. And what will it do? It will go to the project, which, relatively speaking, is called Israel. Israel also has security guarantees. Security guarantees in the best case will be in the supply of weapons to Ukraine, in order for the Ukrainian Armed Forces to fight. But this means a war that will never end and for which Ukrainians will pay a heavy price. That’s just Israel is at war with Gaza, and we are at war with the second largest nuclear power in the world," Poroshenko emphasized.

"The price and sacrifices will be different. Therefore, no security guarantees can be considered by us now as the pro-Ukrainian scenario," the fifth President is sure.

"But there is a third scenario that Russia dreams of. And this scenario is called “Afghanistan”: when a dictatorship is formed in Ukraine, when Ukraine is not a member of NATO, when we are not given security guarantees and we are not given weapons. And this is the scenario that is Putin's dream," Poroshenko warns.

"It is very important that today’s messages are heard during the Vilnius NATO summit. Because when we talk about protecting democracy, the protection of democracy takes place within the framework of our movement in the EU and NATO. Because NATO is democracy," Poroshenko summarized.

The Kyiv Security Forum was launched by the Arseniy Yatsenyuk Open Ukraine Foundation in 2007. The Forum is an annual event, a high-level discussion on issues of national security of Ukraine, the Black Sea region, security issues in Europe and global security in the world.