EU expected to back Ukraine membership bid as war brings huge shift

KYIV/BRUSSELS, June 17 (Reuters) – The European Union’s government Commission was expected to give its blessing on Friday to membership candidate standing for Ukraine and two different former Soviet states, an historic eastward shift in Europe’s outlook caused by Russia’s invasion.

Ukraine utilized to be part of the EU simply 4 days after Russian troops poured throughout its border in February. Four days later, so did Moldova and Georgia – two different states contending with separatist areas occupied by Russian troops.

The leaders of the three greatest EU powers – Germany, France and Italy – signalled their solidarity on Thursday by visiting Kyiv, together with the president of Romania.

“Ukraine belongs to the European family,” Germany’s Olaf Scholz stated after assembly President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. EU leaders are expected to endorse the Commission’s advice at a summit subsequent week.

Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia will nonetheless face a prolonged course of to obtain the requirements required for membership, and there are different candidates within the ready room. Nor is membership assured – talks have been stalled for years with Turkey, formally a candidate since 1999.

But launching the official course of to admit the three ex-Soviet states, a transfer that will have appeared unthinkable simply months in the past, quantities to a shift on par with the choice within the Nineties to welcome the ex-Communist international locations of Eastern Europe.

“Precisely because of the bravery of the Ukrainians, Europe can create a new history of freedom, and finally remove the grey zone in Eastern Europe between the EU and Russia,” Zelenskiy stated in his nightly video handle.

“Ukraine has come close to the EU, closer than any time since independence,” he stated, mentioning unspecified “good news” to come.

If admitted, Ukraine can be the EU’s largest nation by space and its fifth most populous. All three hopefuls are far poorer than any current EU members, with per capita output round half that of the poorest, Bulgaria.

All have current histories of unstable politics, home unrest, entrenched organised crime, and unresolved conflicts with Russian-backed separatists proclaiming sovereignty over territory protected by Moscow’s troops.

PORT BLOCKADE

President Vladimir Putin ordered his “special military operation” formally to disarm and “denazify” Ukraine. One of his fundamental targets was to halt the growth of Western establishments which he known as a menace to Russia.

But the war, which has killed hundreds of individuals, destroyed complete cities and set hundreds of thousands to flight, has had the alternative impact. Finland and Sweden have utilized to be part of the NATO army alliance, and the EU has opened its arms to the east.

Within Ukraine, Russian forces have been defeated in an try to storm the capital in March, however have since refocused on seizing extra territory within the east.

The almost four-month-old war has entered a punishing attritional part, with Russian forces counting on their large benefit in artillery firepower to blast their means into Ukrainian cities.

Ukrainian officers stated their troops have been nonetheless holding out in Sievierodonetsk, website of the worst preventing of current weeks, on the east financial institution of the Siverskiy Donets river. It was unimaginable to evacuate greater than 500 civilians who’re trapped inside a chemical plant the place the troops are holding out, the regional governor stated.

In the encompassing Donbas area, which Moscow claims on behalf of its separatist proxies, Ukrainian forces are primarily defending the river’s reverse financial institution.

In the south, Ukraine has mounted a counter-offensive, claiming to have made inroads into the most important swath nonetheless held by Russia of the territory it seized within the invasion. There have been few stories from the frontline to verify the state of affairs in that space.

Ukraine claimed its forces had struck a Russian tugboat bringing troopers, weapons and ammunition to Russian-occupied Snake Island, a strategic Black Sea outpost.

Among the principle issues of world leaders is Russia’s blockade of Ukraine’s Black Sea ports, stopping exports from one of many world’s greatest sources of grain and threatening to trigger a world meals disaster.

French President Emmanuel Macron stated he was sceptical that Moscow would agree to a United Nations proposal to open the ports.

“I already had talks a few weeks ago with President Putin, but he didn’t want to accept a U.N. resolution on this subject,” he stated.

Russia blames the meals disaster on Western sanctions, which it says hurt its personal grain exports, and Ukraine’s ports cannot be opened due to mines.

Additional reporting by Reuters bureaux; Writing by Peter Graff, Editing by Angus MacSwan

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