- EU leaders are launching Ukraine’s membership process
- Zelenski called on the West to speed up the supply of heavy weapons
- The battle for twin cities in Donbass is reaching a critical stage
Kyiv, June 23 (Reuters) – Ukraine became a candidate for joining the European Union on Thursday, a bold geopolitical move sparked by the Russian invasion, which Kyiv and Brussels described as a “historic moment”.
Starting the long road to EU membership will be a huge boost to morale in the country, as Russian attacks on two cities in the eastern Donbass region are nearing a “terrible culmination,” according to a Ukrainian government adviser.
“Ukraine’s future is in the EU,” President Vladimir Zelensky wrote on Twitter after the official announcement.
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“A historic moment,” European Council President Charles Michel tweeted, adding: “Our future is together.” Read more
Approval of the Kyiv government’s statement by the EU leaders’ meeting in Brussels will anger Russia as it struggles to impose its will on Ukraine. Moldova also became an official candidate on Thursday, signaling the bloc’s intention to reach deep into the former Soviet Union.
Friday will mark four months since Russian President Vladimir Putin sent troops across the border in what he calls a “special military operation” triggered in part by Western encroachment on Russia’s sphere of influence.
The conflict, which the West sees as an unwarranted war of aggression by Russia, has killed thousands, displaced millions and destroyed cities, while restrictions on food and energy exports have affected countries around the world.
Russia has focused its campaign on southern and eastern Ukraine after its advance on the capital in the early stages of the conflict was thwarted by Ukrainian resistance.
The war of attrition in Donbass – Ukraine’s industrial center – is most critical in the twin cities of Severodonetsk and Lisichansk, located on opposite banks of the Seversky Donets River in Luhansk province.
The battle there “is entering a kind of terrible culmination,” said Alexei Arestovich, an adviser to Zelensky.
HOT SUMMER
Russian forces are trying to surround Ukrainian troops defending Lisichansk, a senior Ukrainian defense official, Alexei Gromov, told a briefing on Thursday.
Luhansk Governor Sergei Gaidai said separately that the whole of Lisichansk was under Russian fire and that Ukrainian troops there could withdraw to new positions so as not to be trapped.
General view of the main meeting room where European Union leaders gather for a summit in Brussels, Belgium, 23 June 2022. REUTERS / Johanna Geron
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Russian-backed separatist forces have said fierce fighting is raging over Ukrainian positions in Hirske, on the west side of the main north-south road to Lisichansk, and Zolote, another town to the south.
Ukrainian forces were defending Severodonetsk and nearby Zolote and Vovchoyrovka, Gaidai said, but Russian troops had captured Loskutivka and Rai-Aleksandrovka to the south. Hundreds of civilians are trapped in a chemical plant in Severodonetsk.
On the southern front, Russian forces struck fuel tanks and military equipment of the Ukrainian army near Nikolaev with high-precision weapons, the Russian Ministry of Defense said, quoted by Interfax.
A river port and shipbuilding center adjacent to the Black Sea, Nikolaev is a bastion against Russian efforts to push the West toward Ukraine’s main port city, Odessa.
Zelensky called on Ukraine’s allies to speed up the supply of heavy weapons to match Russia on the battlefield. “We need to liberate our land and win, but faster, much faster,” he said in a video address early Thursday.
The Ukrainian Minister of Defense later said that HIMARS jet systems had arrived from the United States. With a range of 70 km (44 miles), the systems can provoke Russian artillery batteries that have smashed Ukrainian cities from afar.
The United States will provide additional $ 450 million in security assistance to Ukraine, including more long-range missile systems, U.S. officials said Thursday. Read more
EU SHIELD
Russia has long opposed closer ties between Ukraine, a former Soviet republic, and Western groups such as the European Union and NATO’s military alliance.
Diplomats say it will take Ukraine a decade or more to meet the criteria for joining the EU.
But European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said she was convinced that Ukraine and Moldova would take action as soon as possible to implement the necessary reforms.
Their move to join the EU goes hand in hand with Sweden’s and Finland’s requests to join NATO after the Russian invasion – indications that the Kremlin’s military actions have affected its geopolitical goals.
In Kyiv, where mass protests ousted the then-president eight years ago after he broke his promise to develop closer ties with the EU, 22-year-old Vladimir Yanishan welcomed Ukraine’s candidate status.
“This means that people have almost reached what we have been striving for since 2014, in a bloody battle that costs us a lot of effort … I think the majority will be happy and that means change for the better.”
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Reporting by Reuters offices; writing by Angus McSwon, Alexandra Hudson and Humeira Pamuk; Edited by Mark Heinrich, Katherine Evans and Rosalba O’Brien
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