Ukraine will not accept any alternatives except EU membership candidate status.

 Ukraine will not agree to any options other than being granted candidate’s status for accession to the European Union, announced Ukraine Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba. “We will not accept any surrogate versions or alternatives other than candidate status, whatever they may be. We need EU candidate status. Nothing other than candidate, no potential candidate or another surrogate, nothing else. We have been playing this game for a long time, and we know how it works,” Kuleba said. According to him, Ukraine meets the criteria for candidate status, but there are still skeptics in Europe trying to impose an alternative.