As war in east rages on, Ukraine gets chance to 'live the European
dream'
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[June 18, 2022]
By Robin Emmott and Max Hunder
BRUSSELS/KYIV (Reuters) -As war rages in
Ukraine's east, Kyiv received a major boost on Friday when the European
Union recommended that it become a candidate to join the bloc,
foreshadowing a dramatic geopolitical shift in the wake of Russia's
invasion.
At a summit next week, EU leaders are expected to endorse the
recommendations by the bloc's executive for Ukraine and neighbouring
Moldova.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Twitter the bravery of
Ukrainians had brought an opportunity for Europe to "create a new
history of freedom, and finally remove the grey zone in Eastern Europe
between the EU and Russia".
As diplomacy advanced with Brussels, intense fighting continued in the
eastern region of Donbas, where Russia seeks to solidify and extend
recent gains, while British Prime Minister Boris Johnson made a surprise
visit to the capital, Kyiv.
Zelenskiy said in a nightly televised address that the decision of EU
member states remains to be seen, but added: "You can only imagine truly
powerful European strength, European independence and European
development with Ukraine."
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2022/Jun/18/images/ads/current/graue_21BLAZER_081621.png)
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced the
decision while wearing the Ukrainian colours, represented by a yellow
blazer over a blue blouse.
"Ukrainians are ready to die for the European perspective," she said.
"We want them to live with us the European dream."
Russian President Vladimir Putin railed at the West, the United States
in particular, in a grievance-filled speech in St Petersburg, but sought
to play down the EU issue.
"We have nothing against it," he said. "It is not a military bloc. It's
the right of any country to join economic union."
However, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Russia was closely
following Ukraine's EU bid, especially in the light of increased defence
cooperation among the 27-member bloc.
Ukraine applied to join the EU four days after Russian troops poured
across its border late in February. Within days it was joined by Moldova
and Georgia, smaller former Soviet states also contending with
separatist regions backed by Russia.
Although only the start of a process that may run for years and require
extensive reforms, the move by the European Commission puts Kyiv on
course to realise an aspiration seen as out of reach just months ago.
One of Putin's stated objectives in launching what Moscow calls a
"special military operation" that has killed thousands of people,
destroyed cities and sent millions fleeing was to halt the West's
eastward expansion via the NATO military alliance.
But Friday's announcement underlined how the war has had the opposite
effect: convincing Finland and Sweden to join NATO, and now the EU to
embark on potentially its most ambitious expansion since welcoming
Eastern European states after the Cold War.
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![](../images/061822PIX/news_k59.jpg)
A smoke rises over remains of a building destroyed by a military
strike, as Russia's attack on Ukraine continues, in Lysychansk,
Luhansk region, Ukraine June 17, 2022. REUTERS/Oleksandr Ratushniak
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2022/Jun/18/images/ads/current/napa_sda_HEROES_2022.png)
Heightening the global showdown, Russian media
broadcast images of what they said were two Americans captured while
fighting for Ukraine. "I am against war," the men said in separate
video clips posted on social media.
POST-SOVIET GENERATION
EU membership is not guaranteed - talks have been stalled for years
with Turkey, a candidate since 1999. But if admitted, Ukraine would
be the EU's largest country by area and its fifth most populous.
Ukraine and Moldova are far poorer than current EU members and have
recent histories of volatile politics and organised crime, in
addition to their conflicts with Russian-backed separatists.
But in Zelenskiy, 44, and Maia Sandu, 50, they have pro-Western
leaders who came of age outside the Soviet Union.
Johnson, the latest in a string of foreign leaders visiting Kyiv,
offered training for Ukrainian forces and said Britain would stand
by the Ukrainian people "until you ultimately prevail".
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba urged the West not to
"suggest peace initiatives with unacceptable terms", in an apparent
reference to remarks this month by French President Emmanuel Macron
that finding a diplomatic solution requires not humiliating Russia.
Instead, Kuleba wrote in an online article in the magazine Foreign
Policy, the West should help Ukraine win, not just by providing
heavy weapons but by maintaining and increasing sanctions against
Moscow.
"The West cannot afford any sanctions fatigue, regardless of the
broader economic costs," he wrote. "It is clear that Putin's path to
the negotiating table lies solely through battleground defeats."
Since Ukraine defeated Russia's bid to storm Kyiv in March, Moscow
has refocused on the eastern Donbas region, which it claims on
behalf of separatist proxies, and its forces have used their
artillery advantage to blast their way into cities in a punishing
phase of the war.
Russia is taking a pounding too.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2017/Jul/22/images/ads/current/rohlfs_lda_072017.png)
Its military is "suffering heavy casualties" after concentrating the
vast majority of its available combat power to capture
Sievierodonetsk and its sister city, Lysychansk, at the expense of
other axes of advance, Washington-based think tank the Institute for
the Study of War said in a note on Friday.
(Additional reporting by Abdelaziz Boumzar in Marinka and Reuters
bureaux; Writing by David Brunnstrom and Clarence Fernandez; Editing
by William Mallard)
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