Kyiv, Ukraine –
A Ukrainian official monitoring the country’s efforts to join the European Union said on Wednesday that she was “100 percent” sure that all 27 EU countries would approve Ukraine’s EU bid during this week’s summit.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has expressed similar optimism, calling it a “crucial moment” for Ukraine. Ukraine’s candidacy for membership is the most important business for the EU leaders’ meeting in Brussels.
In an interview with the Associated Press, Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration Olha Stefanishina said the decision could be made as early as Thursday, when the summit of leaders begins.
Stefanishina said the Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark have been skeptical about starting accession talks with Ukraine as it fights the Russian invasion, but now support it. Asked how confident she is that Ukraine will be accepted as an EU candidate, she said: “The day before the summit, I can say 100 percent.”
The EU’s executive body threw its weight behind Ukraine’s bid last week. Stefanishina described the European Commission’s approval as “a change of game” that cut the ground from under the feet of those who are most hesitant.
EU candidate status, which can only be granted if the existing member states agree unanimously, is the first step towards membership. It does not provide any security guarantees or automatic right to join the unit.
Ukraine’s full membership will depend on whether a war-torn country can meet political and economic conditions. Potential newcomers must demonstrate that they meet the standards of democratic principles and must master 80,000 pages of rules covering everything from trade and immigration to fertilizers and the rule of law.
Stefanishina told the AP that she believes Ukraine could become a member of the EU in years, not decades, as some European officials predict.
“We are already very integrated in the European Union,” she said. “We want to be a strong and competitive Member State, so it can take two to 10 years.
To help applicants, the bloc can provide technical and financial assistance. MEPs said Ukraine had already implemented about 70% of EU rules, norms and standards, but also pointed to corruption and the need for deep political and economic reforms.
In a virtual conversation with Canadian students on Wednesday, Zelensky described the Brussels summit as “two crucial days” that, like Stefanishina, he said would lead to Ukraine’s EU bid being approved.
“This is a very important moment for us. “Some people on my team say it’s like stepping into the light of darkness,” he said. “In terms of our army and society, this is a great motivator, a great motivating factor for the unity and victory of the people of Ukraine.
Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Cru said he spoke with Zelensky on Wednesday and assured him that Belgium would support Ukraine’s candidate status.
“Significant efforts will be needed, especially in the fight against corruption and the establishment of an effective rule of law,” De Cross said. “But I am convinced that it is the (post-war) reconstruction of Ukraine that will provide opportunities to take important steps forward.
In other developments:
– The Reporters Without Borders press freedom group said a Ukrainian photojournalist and an accompanying soldier appeared to have been “coldly executed” in the first weeks of the war in Ukraine as they searched the Russian-occupied forests for a missing camera drone. The group sent investigators into the woods north of the capital, Kyiv, where the bodies of Max Levin and serviceman Alexei Chernyshov were found on April 1st. The group said its team counted 14 bullet holes in the couple’s burned-out body and apparently found rubbish left by Russian soldiers.
“Russian forces have taken over three villages in Ukraine’s highly contested eastern region,” a local official said. Luhansk Governor Sergei Haidai told the Associated Press on Wednesday that the villages are a few miles from the city of Lisichansk, the last city in his province that is still entirely under Ukrainian control. The Russians have also taken over the strategic coal settlement of Toshkivka, allowing them to step up attacks, Haidai said.
– The Russian Ministry of Defense announced on Wednesday that Russian forces killed up to 500 Ukrainian servicemen in high-precision strikes on Tuesday against the Nikolaev Shipyard. The ministry also said Ukrainian forces had evacuated up to 30 wounded and eight killed American and British foreign fighters from near Nikolaevka, in the separatist Donetsk People’s Republic. The Ukrainian authorities did not confirm these allegations; instead, they reported more Russian shelling of Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv. Ukrainian Defense Ministry spokesman Alexander Motuzyanik said that in some battles, for every artillery shell from Ukrainian forces, the Russian army fired at least six.
-Russian officials said a drone strike caused a fire at an oil refinery plant in southwestern Russia on Wednesday. The fire engulfed some of the machines at the plant in Novoshakhtinsk in the Rostov-on-Don region. Authorities said dozens of firefighters were quick to contain the blaze and no one was injured. A statement from the plant said the fire was caused by a two-drone strike, describing it as a “terrorist act”. Ukrainian authorities have not confirmed the strike.
– The Ministry of Defense of Turkey announced on Wednesday that a Turkish ship is allowed to leave the Russian-occupied port of Mariupol in the Sea of Azov after talks between representatives of the Turkish and Russian Ministries of Defense. A statement from the ministry said that the Turkish cargo ship Azov Concord was the first foreign ship to be allowed to leave Mariupol. The ministry did not say what the cargo ship was carrying. The war halted critical grain exports by sea. Turkish and Russian military delegations met in Moscow on Tuesday to discuss a possible deal to supply grain from Ukraine across the Black Sea.
“The French armed forces have conducted a surprise military exercise in Estonia, deploying more than 100 paratroopers in Russia’s neighboring Baltic state,” the French Defense Ministry said on Wednesday. The airborne operation, called “Thunder Lynx”, allowed the launch of about 100 French paratroopers in a short period of time “over an area protected by Estonian soldiers”, the statement said. The exercise in Estonia, a NATO ally, was carried out as an act of “strategic solidarity” against the backdrop of the Russian war in Ukraine.
Petrekin himself in Brussels, Khan Arkhirov in Kyiv and Rob Gillis in Toronto contributed.
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