Ukrainian officials said that the EU-Ukraine summit on February 3 sent a “strong signal” to Moscow and the whole world, nearly a year. after the conflict broke out.
“The Ukraine-EU summit held in Kiev on February 3 sends a strong signal to partners and Russia,” Prime Minister Denys Shmygal told a government meeting on February 1.
Mr Shmygal called the event “extremely important” to Kiev’s efforts to join the EU. However, information about the EU’s conference participants was not announced in advance.
The Ukrainian prime minister also spoke of “another important event” taking place on February 2, when consultations between the Government of Ukraine and the European Commission (EC) took place “for the first time in history”.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said that today’s EU-Ukraine Summit agenda focuses on the progress of the EU accession negotiations after Kiev implements all the recommendations of the EC.
“The main topic on the agenda will be the prospect of starting the EU accession negotiations as soon as possible after Ukraine has met all the EC recommendations and received a positive assessment,” he said. Kuleba said.
Ukraine obtained EU candidate status in June 2022.
According to Foreign Minister Kuleba, Kiev believes in significant progress in the process of accessing the EU’s internal market, and energy cooperation and hopes that the path to joining the EU will not be too far.
At this event, the parties are expected to sign a number of documents and issue a joint statement after the conference, according to the Ukrainian foreign minister.
This conference takes place nearly a year after Russia launched a special military operation in Ukraine, amid the fierce escalation of hostilities and fierce debates over Western aid with more modern weapons to Ukraine. Kiev.
Foreign Minister Kuleba said that dozens of countries have pledged to provide more than 100 tanks after Germany and Washington signed a contract to deliver goods to Kiev soon. “There have been Leopard 2, Challenger 2, M1 Abrams,” Kuleba added, without specifying when the shipments would be delivered.
The decision to supply weapons came after weeks of diplomatic wrangling and was seen as a breakthrough by the West in its efforts to support Ukraine in its fight to retake territories from Russian forces.
Now, Ukrainian President Zelensky is calling on the West to provide more fighters and long-range missiles.
Despite Western sources of arms aid, Russia has recently claimed major victories in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region. The Russian Defense Ministry claims to have “liberated” the village of Blagodatne north of Bakhmut.
Blagodatne village is located on the highway leading to Bakhmut. The declaration of control over the area comes not long after Ukraine admitted it had abandoned the nearby salt mining town of Soledar.
Meanwhile, Ukraine said it was waiting to receive 140 modern tanks from its Western allies, as Russian forces claimed control of a new area near the Bakhmut frontline hotspot.
