Ukraine can only become a NATO member after the reforms being conducted in the country are implemented and a referendum on membership has been held, Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk has said.
“If a few years ago this wasn’t on our radar, then [it is] now my political position – it is on our radar. Ukrainians, after the implementation of reforms, must decide on Ukrainian membership of NATO, and the alliance would get one more member which would protect freedom and democracy from aggression,” Yatseniuk said, while speaking at the third Kyiv Youth Security Forum entitled “the Role of the New Generation in Saving Peace and Safety” on March 25.
According to Yatseniuk, “for over a decade Russia has spent billions of dollars on defense, we lost Crimea and we got Russian soldiers and tanks in Ukrainian territory. We lost 6,000 lives to the imperialist ambitions of Russia and its leaders, because for over a decade our western partners were a little blind and a little deaf [to Russian aggression], because Ukraine did not receive the NATO Membership Action Plan in Bucharest, and because the world responded insufficiently to Russia’s attack on Georgia in 2008.”
