KIEV (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 23rd January, 2019) Ukraine should become a NATO member as soon as possible, since the membership in the bloc is the only security assurance that can protect Kiev against the endless war in Donbas, the leader of Ukraine's pro-European Batkivshchyna (Fatherland) party, former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko said on Tuesday.
Earlier in the day, the Batkivshchyna party nominated Tymoshenko as its presidential candidate at the party's 14th congress. The presidential election in Ukraine will be held on March 31.
"We should not only become a NATO member. We should become a NATO member immediately. Believe me, we do not have time for a slow start ... We will be secure only as a NATO [member]. Our alternative is as follows: either NATO, or endless ATO [anti-terrorist operation, the term used by Kiev to refer to the military operation in eastern Ukraine]," Tymoshenko said.
According to Tymoshenko, if Ukraine had joined NATO earlier, the country would not have been devastated and engulfed in the war now.
The European integration is one of the key priorities for the Ukrainian leadership. In November, the Ukrainian parliament passed a series of constitutional amendments defining joining the European Union and NATO as the country's foreign policy objectives.
In December 2014, Ukraine canceled its non-aligned status, thereby confirming its intention to join NATO. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has said a referendum on NATO membership will be held by 2020. Despite Kiev's aspirations to become part of the alliance, NATO officials have repeatedly said that the country needs to implement a wide range of reforms before pursuing membership.
