Ukraine should reconsider NATO membership path, Zelensky official says

Ukraine won’t be allowed to join NATO and should
reconsider its relations with the international defense organization, said on Sept.
23 Iryna Wereschtschuk, the president’s representative to Ukraine’s parliament.
“We want to join, but they’re not taking us,” she told the Russian-oriented 112
television network. “We are knocking on a closed door and are losing our
reputation. We can’t go where we’re not awaited. We need to move forward,
become stronger, more coordinated. We have a program of cooperation, that’s
all. But somehow Georgia has one section of work to do, and we have another.
And not even the political section.”

On the other hand, Ukraine is “quite successfully”
fulfilling the security component to meet NATO standards that have been
included in national security. “We speak and often draw criticism, but we
should be telling people the truth,” said Wereschtschuk, a People’s Servant MP
who heads the security and defense subcommittee of the parliamentary national
security committee. “NATO is not awaiting us. Georgia will sooner join. And I
was very surprised because in 2008, Georgia and Ukraine had an equal
opportunity to gain a Membership Action Plan. We are the victims of aggression,
yet today including Georgia in NATO is a serious question. Ukraine is not even
being considered.”