Ukraine has concrete ideas and proposals on how to prevent Russia from turning the Black Sea into its "inner lake," Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has said.

"If the Black Sea countries and NATO members plus Ukraine, Georgia, and even a place for Moldova in this mechanism can be found, do not join their efforts, then Russia will turn the Black Sea into its inner lake, divide it in half and start to fully dominate its are. This topic was discussed very substantively yesterday, that is, what needs to be done in order to level the security situation in the Black Sea. Ukraine has concrete ideas, concrete proposals on this matter," Kuleba said live on Facebook on Tuesday, following the results of the visit of President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky to Georgia.

The minister said Ukraine is now discussing these ideas with Georgia, Moldova, NATO member states that are Black Sea and friendly to Ukraine, namely Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey.

Kuleba also said the Associated Trio of Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova was created in Kyiv in May in order to strengthen European integration, and on Monday a full-fledged summit of the leaders of the Associated Trio was held in Batumi with the participation of President of the European Council Charles Michel.

"Here we are talking about the security of the region, about the security of Europe in general, because we are absolutely convinced that without the membership of our three countries in the EU, it will be impossible to ensure the full security of Europe [...]. But I will tell you that more and more countries in the EU are also beginning to think within this paradigm, and this is very encouraging," he said.