NATO must make a political decision that will either determine the timetable for Ukraine's accession directly at the upcoming Alliance summit in Vilnius, or oblige to submit it by the end of 2023, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said.

“At the alliance’s upcoming summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, NATO members should send a written signal to Russia that the game is over: Ukraine is part of the West, it is on NATO’s doorstep, and it will soon walk through the door. To avoid any misunderstandings, we in Ukraine are not talking about immediate membership at the Vilnius summit but about NATO allies taking a historic step toward admitting the country,” it is said in the minister's article for the publication Foreign Affairs.

He stressed that there is no need for a Membership Action Plan setting out the indicators that the country must meet before joining, noting that Finland and Sweden have demonstrated that there is no need for such programs, and Ukraine more than meets the criteria for accession.

“The time has come to offer clarity instead of reiterating the open-door policy and letting Putin exploit its ambiguity. NATO must resist the temptation to make additional demands of Ukraine that would further delay its membership,” the head of the Foreign Ministry said.

The Minister noted that accession is a process, and achieving the ultimate goal of full membership of Ukraine in the Alliance will depend, in particular, on the security situation, but this process should begin immediately.

It is also important that NATO members decide which security guarantees they want to offer Ukraine now, before joining, and which of these guarantees will continue to operate after Ukraine becomes a member of NATO (other than those enshrined in the North Atlantic Treaty).

“If NATO fails to act at the Vilnius summit, however, it will continue to carry the shame of Bucharest. The time to act is now,” Kuleba said.

According to the head of the department, in the 15 years since the NATO summit in Bucharest, “we have heard many arguments about why Ukraine cannot join NATO.”

“In 2022, when Russia started its terrible all-out invasion, NATO still had not opened a real path for Ukrainian membership. As I write these lines, an air raid siren is sounding in Kyiv, and Russia is in the midst of a months-long assault on the city of Bakhmut. Moscow is also preparing to repel a series of Ukraine’s counteroffensives. So I have a simple response to anyone who argues that admitting Ukraine to NATO would provoke Russia: Are you serious?” the minister’s article reads.

He also called it absurd that some opponents of Ukraine's membership continue to put forward an argument about a common border even after more than a year of full-scale war.

“Russia responded to NATO’s latest enlargement—which puts a member directly on Russia’s border—not by lashing out at Finland but by downplaying the significance of the country’s accession, presumably to avoid highlighting its own failure to keep Helsinki out of the alliance,” the foreign minister added.

“I am not questioning NATO’s current commitment to Ukraine. Alliance members have delivered vital assistance to Kyiv since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion. But I am questioning NATO’s strategy when it comes to Ukraine and the long-term security of the Euro-Atlantic area. Fear has clouded the alliance’s judgment, leading it to adopt an overly cautious strategy that has had grave consequences for thousands of Ukrainians who have been kidnapped, raped, tortured, displaced, or killed,” he stressed.

In addition, as Kuleba noted, NATO's false strategy allowed Russia to undermine the security of the West with cyber attacks, espionage and political interference.

“The current leaders of NATO countries did not make the misguided decisions that brought us here, but they can make the bold decision to expand the alliance and thereby safeguard the Euro-Atlantic. Leaving Ukraine exposed will only lead to further instability and Russian aggression,” the head of the Foreign Ministry stated.