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Rabat – EU leaders are set to grant Ukraine candidate status, opening the door to EU membership for the war-torn country and dealing a blow to Vladimir Putin.
Four months after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy launched the bid to join the European Union, leaders meeting in Brussels are expected to approve the country’s candidacy status later on Thursday, a move which typically takes years.
The unprecedented accelerated process comes amid outrage in much of the western world over Russia’s actions in the war and serves as an expression of solidarity with Ukraine.
“Ukraine is going through hell for a simple reason: its desire to join the EU,” European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, said on Twitter. “Our opinion stems from careful thorough assessment of the reality on the ground.”
Zelenskyy said he spoke with over 11 European leaders since Wednesday in an effort to garner support for his country’s bid to enter the union.
According to Ukraine’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Dmytro Kuleba, the candidate status “will draw a line under decades of ambiguity.”
“Ukraine is Europe, not part of the ‘Russian world’,” Kuleba added.
Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin had previously expressed a lack of concern regarding Ukraine’s potential EU membership, claiming that the European Union “is not a military organization.”
While the EU is mainly a political and economic alliance, it does have a mutual defense clause which would see increased military support for Ukraine from European nations, should the membership go ahead.
That being said, the candidacy status remains largely symbolic, many observers argue, as the process to admit Ukraine into the EU is expected to take much longer.
Kyiv will still need to implement legal and economic reforms aligning with “EU standards,” and membership could be rescinded if the Ukrainian government fails to do so.
The announcement of Ukraine’s candidacy status is considered a morale-lifting move by the Ukrainians.
If admitted, Ukraine would be Europe’s largest country by area size and its fifth most populous nation.
