LAST UPDATE: 22.43
The EU has handed over a questionnaire to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that will take Ukraine one step further towards being granted EU candidate status, according to the BBC.
Speaking to the Ukrainian president, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the EU would support Ukraine to ensure that the process of completing its application for EU membership would take “weeks, not years”, as the process has been accelerated due to war’s.
“Russia will fall into economic, financial and technological decline, while Ukraine is moving towards a European future,” she said.
Volodymyr Zelensky welcomed Ursula von der Leyen and Josep Borrell in Kyiv 🇪🇺 pic.twitter.com/Iz6i9Qee4k
– UkraineWorld (@ukraine_world) April 8, 2022
Receiving the questionnaire in a file, Zelensky assured reporters that he would be ready in a week.
Borrell added that more than 7m euros had been allocated to support Ukraine in gathering evidence of war crimes at the International Criminal Court. Borrell also said that EU representatives would return to the capital soon and that he believed the embassies would follow suit.
In Boutsa we saw the “inhuman face” of the Russian army, says Von der Layen
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the civilian deaths in the Ukrainian city of Buca showed the “inhuman face” of the Russian army, while pledging to support Kyiv in its fight to defend “Europe’s borders”.
During her visit to Bhutan, where investigators began exhuming bodies from a mass grave, Ursula von der Leyen was visibly shocked by what she saw in a city where Ukrainian officials say hundreds of civilians had been killed by Russian troops.
Russia denies attacks on civilians in the invasion of Ukraine, which began six weeks ago. He denies allegations that Russian forces executed civilians in Bhutan after the capture of the city, citing “monstrous forgery” aimed at discrediting the Russian military.
Speaking to reporters in Bhutan, the president of the commission said that the European Union would do everything possible to support Ukraine in the “necessary steps” to secure its EU membership – which Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is urgently seeking.
“The unthinkable has happened here. We have seen the inhuman face of Putin’s army. We have seen the recklessness and coldness with which they have taken over the city,” Ursula von der Leyen told reporters in Bhutan.
“The whole world is mourning with the people of Bhutan and they are the ones who … are defending the borders of Europe, they are defending humanity, they are defending democracy. And that is why we are on their side in this important struggle,” he said. .
The images from Butsa, which was captured along with other cities in the north of the Ukrainian capital as Russian forces flew to focus on operations in eastern Ukraine, gave new impetus to Western efforts to punish Moscow for its invasion. February 24th.
Ethical support
Hours before Ursula von der Layen arrived in Kyiv, more than 50 people were killed and many more injured in a rocket attack on a train station, which was flooded by civilians from eastern Ukraine.
The European Commission president’s trip to Kyiv was intended to provide Zelensky with moral and (some) financial support. Traveling by train from Brussels to Kyiv, he told reporters that the most important message he was carrying was that the way was open for Ukraine to join the EU.
For his part, European Union Foreign Minister Josep Borrell told reporters that the visit showed that “Ukraine has control of its territories.” “There is a government that receives visitors from abroad and one can travel to Kyiv,” Borrell said, adding that he hoped the EU would provide an additional 500m euros to Ukraine in the coming days.
Zelensky reiterated that the war is a direct attack not only on the very existence of Ukraine but also on the security of Europe as a whole.
Russia describes the attack as a “special military operation” to demilitarize and “de-Nazify” its neighbor. Prior to the invasion, Putin had described Ukraine’s turn to the West in recent years – including its ambition to join NATO – as a threat to Russia’s security.
Zelensky has called on Brussels to do more to punish Moscow, such as the embargo on oil and gas from Russia, and called on the EU to accept Ukraine as a full member.
Borrell acknowledged that sanctions on oil were “complex” – referring to “a big elephant in the room” – and expressed concern that blocking Russian crude would cause prices to plummet, which could hurt European economies. He said the export decision was expected to be made in Brussels on Monday.
Source: Capital
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