Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba in his office in central Kyiv, in north-central Ukraine, on Thursday. Credit … Mauricio Lima for The New York Times
Kyiv, Ukraine – When the European Union summit kicked off in Brussels on Thursday night, Ukraine’s assistant foreign minister joined the process on a laptop.
Minister Dmitry Kuleba, whose left leg was in tight red after a basketball injury, was optimistic as he watched the European Council give his war-torn country something it has been unsuccessfully seeking for years: the desired candidate status to join the bloc.
This was one of the best news for Ukraine, which is in its fourth month of war, as a successful counteroffensive pushed Russian troops out of the capital. Mr Kuleba said the council’s move was “the most important step in overcoming the latest psychological barrier in relations between Ukraine and the European Union”.
However, he acknowledged that his country would have to wait a long time before it could join the 27-nation bloc. The action of the European Council, composed of the leaders of the Member States, was only the first step in a long process, and Ukraine will have to make progress in fighting corruption and enforcing the rule of law in order to finally be approved.
“Of course, there will be talks, reforms here and in the European Union,” he said. “I do not care. Until the decision is made that Ukraine is Europe, I am fine. The story is made. “
Mr Kuleba said that for decades, as Ukrainians fought for democracy in the 2004 and 2014 protests, Brussels and other European capitals were still “having fun with the idea of a buffer zone of something in between, a bridge between Russia and the EU “
In the final phase, he said, European leaders unofficially “wink” at Ukrainian officials. “Like, ‘Boys, it’s going to be okay, it’s going to take years, but in the end, you’re going to be with us,'” he said. “But they were still afraid to say it out loud.”
As Mr Kuleba spoke in the interview, air raid sirens sounded in Kyiv. An aide ran to the office to say that 10 Russian missiles were flying over Ukrainian airspace.
“I am not surprised that today the Russians will shoot something at Kyiv,” Kuleba said, adding that the symbols of the day would not be lost to the Kremlin.
Kuleba, a 41-year-old career diplomat, said he saw the European Union as “the first attempt to build a liberal empire” on democratic principles, contrasting it with Russia’s aggression against former Soviet states under President Vladimir Putin.
“I understand that people don’t like the word empire, but that’s how history is written,” Mr Kuleba said. “You have to show that different things of this magnitude can be built on different principles: those of liberalism, democracy, respect for human rights, not the principle of imposing the will of one on the other.”
Mr Kuleba said he was grateful to other Western allies, especially the United States, for their military and political support. However, he said he hoped for a clearer wording of Washington’s military goals.
“We are still waiting for the moment when we hear a clear message from Washington that for Washington the goal of this war is for Ukraine to win and for international law to be restored,” he said. “And Ukraine’s victory for Washington means restoring Ukraine’s territorial integrity and sovereignty.
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