The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine has made significant efforts to create and maintain an international coalition to support our country in countering russia's full-scale aggression and is now focusing on reaching a consensus among partners on three key decisions: Ukraine's accession to NATO, providing Ukraine with Western aircraft and imposing new tough sanctions against russia. Minister of Foreign Affairs Dmytro Kuleba stated during the Strategic Ark Conference organized by the Polish Institute of International Affairs, in which he participated online together with his Polish counterpart Zbigniew Rau.

"When russia attempted to annex Crimea in 2014, the world was united in words, but not in actions. This encouraged russia to continue its aggression and expand it to Donbas, and later to the entire territory of Ukraine in a full-scale invasion. Since last year, fortunately, we have had the unity of the world in concrete actions to support Ukraine. We all put aside our problems and united around a common goal, countering a common enemy," he said.

The Minister reminded that a year ago, during the EU discussions on granting Ukraine the status of a candidate for EU membership, some skeptics urged our country not to undermine unity by insisting on a decision on which there was no consensus. In the end, a consensus was reached, and after the decision was made, the EU countries celebrated the unity around it. He compared this dynamic to the current debate on Ukraine's membership in NATO, which he believes will also end in a positive outcome.

He emphasized the unity of views between Ukraine and Poland and noted that the two countries are working together to achieve the unity of the international coalition on a number of specific decisions. The Minister noted that unity cannot be seen outside the context of concrete steps that require it. Different decisions require a different group of countries to reach consensus, and Ukrainian diplomacy is working to build it in each case.

"Today, the broadest unity of countries is needed around the position that Ukraine must win this war on the terms determined by Ukraine itself. Countries that set this as their goal will begin to make the right decisions very quickly. The priority steps that we are working on building consensus on are Ukraine's membership in NATO, the aviation coalition, and the will to impose new tough sanctions against russia. There are other important steps, but these three are key," Dmytro Kuleba emphasized.

The Ukrainian Foreign Minister reminded that at the NATO Summit in Vilnius, Ukraine seeks to obtain a decision that will determine the algorithm of its accession to the North Atlantic Alliance: "Simply put, we will welcome any concrete step that the allies can take on the path to Ukraine's membership in NATO."