Best way to guarantee Europe’s future would be fast-track EU membership for Ukraine

Written by: Jekaterina Golubkova and Ronald Popeski

June 19 (Reuters) – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy told an EU summit on Thursday that the future of Europe is shaped by Ukraine’s defense and that the best security guarantee for the bloc’s future would be the rapid granting of membership to Kiev.

Zelenskiy said he told member states that Ukraine wants the war against Russia to end by the end of the year and called on them to help Kiev prepare for a new winter with air defense missiles and fuel.

In excerpts from his speech published on

“The free, united and, of course, peaceful future of Europe is determined by our defense. This shows how unique our situation is.”

Hours earlier, Ukrainian airstrikes hit targets deep within Russia, including an oil refinery in Moscow; They were the latest long-range strikes in the campaign, which Zelenskiy has highlighted as evidence of Ukraine’s capabilities during meetings with US President Donald Trump and other G7 leaders in France this week.

In his message to EU leaders, he acknowledged that not all members would support accelerated accession, as Hungary demanded the removal of such language in the European Council statement published after the summit.

“The most important step of this kind – I know not everyone likes this – could be a way to accelerate Ukraine’s accession to the EU,” Zelenskiy said. he said.

EU ambassadors decided last week to advance membership talks with Ukraine and former Soviet Moldova; Talks have begun on the first of six law and policy “clusters” to align legislation and standards with the bloc.

In the statement published by the European Council after the summit, the start of accession negotiations for Ukraine was welcomed and it was stated that it “looks forward to the opening of other clusters in line with the merit-based approach”.

However, Prime Minister Peter Magyar told the X channel that Hungary managed to remove the phrase about accelerating Ukraine’s accession from the statement.

“It wasn’t easy,” he wrote.

THE WAR WILL BE ENDED THIS YEAR

In subsequent comments published on Telegram, Zelenskiy said that Ukraine, which is also seeking support from the United States for its efforts to find a peace solution to the conflict that has been going on for more than four years, wants to end the war this year.

“Of course, we want to end this war before winter, through diplomacy and putting pressure on Russia. But we understand who we are dealing with,” he said.

“Putin is war,” he added, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Zelenskiy said that if the war drags on further, Ukraine will need gas, diesel fuel, energy equipment and a missile package consisting of at least 300 missiles.

He added that the security of Europe depends on funding the Ukrainian military, and that the EU and the “coalition of willing countries” supporting Kiev can develop the financial instruments to guarantee this.

It also called for payments of 6 billion euros ($6.9 billion) from the EU European Peace Facility, which aims to support international security.

The Ukrainian drone attack on Moscow’s oil refinery was Kiev’s second this week in response to an attack that damaged a nearly 1,000-year-old monastery in the city. Russia denied responsibility for this attack.

In an audio message released at the end of the summit and at an earlier meeting of the “Ramstein” group on military aid to Ukraine, Zelenskiy reiterated Ukraine’s readiness to meet with Putin on resolving the war. But he urged Europe to remain vigilant and keep up the pressure on Moscow.

“Europe needs to step in so that we have a strong position, that we are fully committed to sanctions without leaving any gaps, to confiscations without exception, and to the financing of Ukraine,” he said.

He also called on Ukrainians to be prepared for new attacks by Russian forces that “could intensify missile and drone attacks against us.” Please take advantage of the shelters, I urge you.”

Speaking after Ukraine’s drone attack on Thursday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Moscow would regularly carry out “massive coordinated attacks” against Ukraine.

(Reporting by Ron Popeski and Jekaterīna Golubkova; Editing by Nia Williams, Sanjeev Miglani and Stephen Coates)