Ukraine irreversibly embarks on path towards European and Euro-Atlantic integration - Poroshenko

14:34, 24.08.2016 1 min read

Kyiv's movement towards democracy and integration into the European Union and NATO is irreversible, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said.

"We, as a nation, have finally found our way to the main road of democracy, freedom, European and Euro-Atlantic integration, and I'm sure this is irreversible," Poroshenko said during a military parade on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of Ukraine's independence in Kyiv on Wednesday.

Poroshenko went on to note that 25 years ago, the Ukrainian people chose an independent future for themselves.

"It is ourselves who organized what [Russian President Vladimir] Putin later described as 'the biggest geopolitical catastrophe'. Back then we didn't have the guts to uncompromisingly break with the past. We got intertwined in the arrows of the multi-vector nature. We tried to keep a foot in both worlds," he said.

The so-called 'mythical fraternity' and reference to the wishes of Moscow, as well as the socialist stereotypes that are entrenched in public consciousness, used to keep Ukraine from moving forward, Poroshenko said.