Zelenskyy makes an emotional appeal for membership in EU
BRUSSELS>> Pre s ident Volodymyr Zelensky y asked his Western allies Thursday for more weapons and said “a Ukraine that is winning” its war with Russia should become a member of the European Union, arguing the bloc won’t be complete without it.
At the close of a 16-hour summit that ended Friday when Zelenskyy was gone, the EU leaders pledged they would do all it takes to back Ukraine but offered no firm timetable for EU membership talks to begin as Zelenskyy had hoped.
French President Emmanuel Macron said the leaders agreed to support Ukraine “tirelessly, over the long term … to win the war.”
EU leaders pledged to look over the nextmonth at boosting ammunition production for Ukraine’s war effort as it faces fresh challenges from Russia.
EU Council President Charles Michel said the bloc needs to “cooperate with the industrial sector and to ensure that we can speed up the level of production of ammunition and that they can also fulfill the commitments that are needed.”
EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said that a new $11 billion sanctions package under discussion would focus on depriving Russia of military goods it needs and cannot get anywhere else.
“The sanctions package “is targeted on goods that are almost irreplaceable fromsomewhere else,” she said.
While in Brussels, Zelenskyy asked Slovakian Prime Minister Eduard Heger to give Ukraine its Soviet- era MIG-29 fighter jets. Slovakia grounded its fleet of Mig-29s last year. “We will work on” the request, Heger replied.
Macron didn’t rule out sending French fighter jets to Ukraine but said Zelenskyy didn’t ask for them and they were not Ukraine’s most urgent need.
“In no case could warplanes be delivered in the coming weeks,” Macron said, notably because of the necessary training. He said France may consider “intensifying’’ deliveries of other equipment such as artillery or missile systems.
The commitments came after an emotional day at EU headquarters where Zelenskyy wrapped up a rare, two- day trip outside Ukraine to seek new weaponry from the West to repel the invasion that Moscow has been waging for nearly a year. As he spoke, a new offensive by Russia in eastern Ukraine was under way.
Zelenskyy, who also visited the U.K. and France, received rapturous applause and cheers fromthe European Parliament and a summit of the 27 EU leaders, insisting in his speech that the fight with Russia was one for the freedom of all of Europe.
“A Ukraine that is winning is going to bemember of the European Union,” Zelenskyy said, building his appeal around the common destiny that Ukraine and the bloc face in confronting Russia.
“Europe will always be, and remain Europe as long as we ... take care of the European way of life,” he said.
EU membership talks should start this year, Zelenskyy said, an ambitious request, given the huge task ahead. Such a move would help motivate Ukrainian soldiers in their defense of the country, he said.
“Of course we need it this year,“he said, then looked at European Council chief Charles Michel, and insisted, tongue-incheek: “When I say this year, Imean this year: twozero-23.”
Von der Leyen, however, said “there is no rigid timeline.” In practice, membership often has taken decades to complete.
Before Zelensky y ’ s speech, European Parliament President Roberta Metsola said allies should consider “quickly, as a next step, providing long-range systems” and fighter jets to Ukraine. The response to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war against Ukraine “must be proportional to the threat, and the threat is existential.”