European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in Kyiv on Friday handed over paperwork to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for his country to become a member of the European Union.
Handing over a document at a joint press conference, EU President von der Leyen said: “This is where your path towards the European Union begins.”
“We stand ready to support you in filling out this questionnaire,” von der Leyen said, adding: “It will not be, as usual, a matter of years, but rather a matter of weeks” to complete this step.
The questionnaire, she explained, forms the basis of an opinion that gets passed on to the European Council.
Von der Leyen said she intended to, “present Ukraine’s application to the [European] Council this summer.”
During the joint press conference, von der Leyen said: “Russia will descend in economic, financial, and technological decay while Ukraine is marching towards a European future.”
“Your fight is our fight, Europe is on your side,” she said during the joint press conference.
“We can never match the sacrifice of the Ukrainian people. But we are mobilizing our economic power to make Putin pay. We have imposed heavy sanctions against Russia & are already preparing the 6th wave. Russia will descend, while Ukraine is marching towards a European future,” She wrote on Twitter.
In another Tweet, President Von der Leyen wrote: “The EU has allocated 1 billion euros to support the Ukrainian armed forces with weapons. And more will come. We will now propose another €500 million to support the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Ukrainian people are holding up the torch of freedom for all of us”.
Von der Leyen in Bucha: ‘Humanity was shattered’
Von der Leyen traveled to Ukraine with her deputy Josep Borrell, who is also the bloc’s commissioner for foreign and security affairs. During the trip, the first by high-ranking EU officials since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, von der Leyen traveled to the city of Bucha.
On Twitter, she wrote, “It was important to start my visit in Bucha. Because in Bucha our humanity was shattered.”
Among the delegation visiting Kyiv is Slovak Prime Minister Eduard Heger, who announced that his country was donating its Soviet-era S-300 air defense system to Ukraine.
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