uropean Union leaders have agreed to make Ukraine a candidate for EU membership after giving its bid a speedy evaluate.
Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky hailed the transfer as a “distinctive and historic second” in relations with the 27-nation bloc.
“Ukraine’s future is within the EU,” he tweeted on Thursday night.
The daring geopolitical transfer has been triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Though it might take Ukraine greater than a decade to qualify for membership, the choice at a two-day EU summit is symbolic step that indicators the bloc’s intention to achieve deep into the previous Soviet Union.
“A historic second,” European Council chief Charles Michel tweeted. “At present marks a vital step in your path in the direction of the EU,” he stated, including: “Our future is collectively.”
The transfer, which additionally sees Moldova being granted candidate standing, kick-starts the EU’s most bold enlargement because it welcomed Japanese European states after the Chilly Warfare.
“All of the individuals in Ukraine are watching and ready for this choice,” stated Ivan Zichenko, a 34-year-old Ukrainian from the devastated metropolis of Kharkiv, who now lives in Brussels.
“It’s very, essential to lift their morale,” he stated as just a few dozen individuals chanted “Ukraine is Europe” at a rally exterior the Brussels constructing the place EU leaders have been assembly.
It is a breaking story.
