Support from partners and work on inviting to NATO welcomes Ukraine’s membership are necessary steps after the Vilnius Summit

After the NATO Vilnius Summit, one of the priorities is to work with Washington, with the United States, with Congress on the budget for 2024. And it is crucial that “the budget should signal that Ukraine is not being forced to the negotiating table, but a signal that our partners will be with us.”

It was emphasized by Hanna Hopko, Chair of the Board of ANTS NGO, during a discussion at the main discussion platform BrainHub at the Media Center Ukraine – Ukrinform. 

“Our task is to accelerate the restoration of territorial integrity, despite the arguments of blackmail Russia is using, sowing fear. It is also our task to explain that we cannot be so focused only on the counteroffensive as it is obviously a failed strategy. In fact, the West must finally make a political decision to defeat Russia on the territory of Ukraine, and the whole range of measures from providing modern weapons, including ATACMS, to imposing tougher sanctions, along with confiscating Russian assets,” said Hopko.

At the same time, she emphasized that it is important to keep winning the support of the West, as “the empathy of Western societies is important for political decisions to continue supporting Ukraine.”

In addition, Hopko noted that it is essential to plan priority steps for further action and emphasized the need to coordinate efforts to increase support for Ukraine’s invitation to join NATO at the Washington summit.

“That’s why we want the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Presidential Office, people responsible for foreign policy, for Ukraine’s membership in NATO and the EU, as well as the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, to plan in a coordinated manner together with those representatives of civil society who work effectively in the international arena. We want to ensure that our goal of being invited to the summit in Washington is no longer in doubt. Both bipartisan support and those countries’ assistance that did not attend the summit were also growing in favor of Ukraine,” she added.

At the same time, Alyona Getmanchuk, Director of the New Europe Center, emphasized that Ukraine’s position in Washington should be clear: an invitation and the start of the accession process.

“The actual accession process should follow the invitation. We hope for this. I think that this should be our position in Washington. Regardless of the situation on the battlefield, regardless of the overall situation, we have an invitation, political, non-political, possibly formal, and the beginning of Ukraine’s accession. This should be our position,” she added.

In addition, Daria Kaleniuk, executive director of the Anti-Corruption Action Center, expressed her belief that Ukraine’s accession to NATO should become a national idea around which all necessary resources will be united.

“The war in Ukraine will end when we become a NATO member. That is, it will come to an end, and we will be free from passing it on to the next generations. As for me, this should be our national idea. The national idea of Ukraine’s accession to NATO, and we need to combine all resources, advocacy, non-advocacy, and campaigning,” she said.

BrainHub is the country’s main discussion platform created by the Media Center Ukraine – Ukrinform. It brings together experts from the state and civil society sectors. BrainHub hosts intellectual discussions around the issues of the post-war reconstruction of Ukraine. It’s the birthplace of the best ideas that will become the foundation for the road map of Ukraine’s reconstruction in all sectors: economy, infrastructure, education, agriculture, security, digital, etc.

Read more: https://mediacenter.org.ua/news