No opinion here regarding which is best. But FWIW I'll pass along a warning: I carry a pretty good Kukri attached to my pack and use it freely to cut and to split wrist sized branches for the fire. But mostly use it while walking, to clear wrist sized limbs and saplings from our trails. To cut with it one typically "whips" it... with some wrist action different than a hatchet.
The thing is, my Kukri will often go through the limb with one clean slice when I was expecting to have to chop a few times. It exits the wood with a velocity and in an arc and angle much different than what I experience with a hatchet. So a safe stance with a Kukri is different than a safe stance with a hatchet. Not better. Not worse. Just different. Some practice (with MY limbs safely behind something impenetrable)is necessary. But...YMMV.