KYIV — Ukraine is hoping to receive within weeks candidate country status for joining the EU, President Volodymyr Zelensky said Monday as he met with the EU’s envoy to Ukraine in Kyiv.
اضافة اعلان
Zelensky handed the envoy, Matti Maasikas, two
volumes in response to a membership questionnaire brought by European
Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen during her visit to Ukraine this month.
“We believe that
we will receive support for this work, become a candidate for admission, and then
the next final stage will begin,” Zelensky told Maasikas, according to a video
of the meeting on social media.
“We really believe that this procedure will take
place in the coming weeks,” he said, adding that “our people ... mentally have
been in Europe for a long time”.
“Another step on Ukraine’s EU path,” Maasikas
tweeted, together with photos of the meeting.
“Honoured to receive from @ZelenskyyUa the answers
to @EU_Commission questionnaire, handed over by @vonderleyen only 10 days ago.
Extraordinary times take extraordinary steps and extraordinary speed.”
Zelensky’s chief of staff Andriy Yermak said Ukraine
was hoping to receive candidate status following a summit of EU leaders in
June.
“Next, accession negotiations should begin, which
should take place under an accelerated procedure.
“Ukraine will be in the EU,” he wrote.
Later Monday, after EU foreign policy chief Josep
Borrell issued a statement condemning Russia’s “indiscriminate” shelling of
civilians in Ukraine, Maasikas added his support.
“The EU commends the Ukrainian people’s strength,
courage and resistance to withstand Russia’s aggression and stands with them in
firm solidarity, including by supporting the delivery of military equipment,”
he tweeted.
Ukraine has ramped up its bid to join the EU since Russian
forces invaded on February 24.
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