Did Ukraine's Foreign minister say his country decides who belongs to the civilized world? No, that's not true. The claim is taken out of context and Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba says an unidentified counterpart from another nation made the comment.
The story appeared in a video (archived here) where it was published by TikTok on May 3, 2023, with a title that read:
Modest Kuleba: Now, Ukraine decides who belongs to the civilized world, and who doesn't.
And a caption that read:
That's what the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Dmytro Kuleba, claimed while talking about the phone call with his colleague.
This is how the post appeared on TikTok at the time of this writing:
(Source: TikTok.com screengrab taken Fri May 12 9:29:35 2023 UTC)
The statement used in these videos was not made by Kuleba. During an interview with Ukrainian TV channel 1+1, the Foreign Minister explained:
Yesterday, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of one country called me and said: "Dmytro, I talked with one problematic country yesterday. I told them that today Ukraine decides who belongs to the civilized world and who doesn't. Because if Ukraine does not signal that it is a normal country and you can do business with it, then you will have problems. This is an example from real politics.
He did not name the foreign counterpart who he says made the comment.
