“On the road to EU membership, Volodymyr Zelensky has already scored points”

Volodymyr Zelensky will have made the suspense last until the end. The European tour of the Ukrainian president became clearer over the hours, in London then in Paris, Wednesday February 8, before Brussels, Thursday. A way for him, two months after being received in Washington by Joe Biden, to mark with a little advance the 1 year of the invasion of his country by Russia, of which he fears above all new offensives.

After meeting with the French, British and German leaders, the Ukrainian president was due to take part, on Thursday, in the European Council of Heads of State and Government of the Twenty-Seven, a body he frequented a lot from a distance in over the twelve months of war with Russia.

Volodymyr Zelensky had participated in video at his first European summit on the same day as the outbreak of the Russian invasion, on February 24, 2022. He had then admitted that he was not certain to remain in his post, given the advance Russian troops towards the capital, kyiv. At the time, no one gave much of their chances of surviving in power, in the face of the bloody “denazification” undertaken by Russia, whose objective was, at the end of a lightning war, to place in power a puppet government under the orders of Moscow.

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Twelve months have passed, and the Ukrainian resistance to the armies of the Kremlin, embodied by Volodymyr Zelensky, commands the admiration of the entire continent. Tanks, planes, long-range missiles, its Western allies are trying to meet its demands for heavy weapons to stem new attacks and retake the territories occupied by Russia.

Rich in symbols

In order to seal its membership of democratic Europe, whose values ​​it defends, Ukraine hopes, in the longer term, to join the European Union (EU), if possible as early as 2026, insisted its president, during the summit. of kyiv on February 3, in the company of the President of the Commission Ursula von der Leyen and that of the European Council, Charles Michel.

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Barely a week later, here is Volodymyr Zelensky received by his counterparts in Brussels, for a summit above all rich in symbols. There is no doubt that the actor who has become a warlord will take the opportunity to insist on his wish to integrate the EU without delay. Ideally, the project, massively supported by the Ukrainian population, could even go hand in hand, in its spirit, with NATO membership, in order to guarantee the military security of its country against the Russian aggressor.

He thus dreams of following the fate of the countries of the former Soviet bloc, led by Poland, which joined the Atlantic Alliance shortly before joining the EU, to better anchor his country among Western nations.

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