Ukraine will not accept any alternatives to granting candidate status to the European Union and does not see any rational arguments from skeptical EU countries, Minister of Foreign Affairs Dmytro Kuleba said, Ukrinform reported.

"I want to reaffirm that we, Ukraine, will not accept any surrogate versions or alternatives to [EU] candidate status no matter how rosy they may be. We need the EU candidate status – not a candidate for candidates, not a potential candidate, or another surrogate. We have been playing this game for a long time and we know how it works. We are humble, modest people who will be satisfied with the usual standard EU candidate status and nothing special should be invented for us," Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba said at an online briefing on Wednesday.

He believes that Ukraine has earned candidate status and meets the criteria for obtaining it.

According to the minister, there are EU countries skeptical about granting Ukraine the candidate status and there are those who try to "seduce us with some alternatives." In this context, Kuleba noted that he did not see skeptical countries having any rational arguments.

"Candidate status is the last psychological barrier of EU skeptic countries that we must overcome," he said.