Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky defended his country’s entry into the European Union on Friday and called for Ukraine not to be left in a “gray area.”
“The first thing is to eliminate once and for all this ‘grey area’, so tempting for the Russian state,” the Ukrainian leader said in a video address at an international conference on democracy in Copenhagen.
“In the coming weeks, the European Union could take a historic step showing that words about the Ukrainian people’s belonging to the European family are not empty,” he added.
European leaders must decide at the summit on June 23-24 whether they accept Ukraine as an official candidate for EU membership.
The European Commission must pronounce itself in the coming days on the matter.
“Why, if polls show that 71% of Europeans consider Ukraine to be part of the European family, are there still skeptical politicians who are hesitant to allow us to join the European Union?” Zelensky asked.
“Why do some still hesitate to block any relationship with Russia if it is cynically violating all the essential treaties of international law? (…) The European system will lose if words are not accompanied by deeds,” he concluded.
The 27 member states are divided over Ukraine’s bid to join the bloc.
If he gets “candidate status,” negotiations and reforms will begin, but these could take years, even decades.
