Brussels: The European Union leaders turned down Kyiv’s appeal of a rapid accession to the bloc even as they have condemned the “unspeakable suffering” caused to the Ukrainian people by the Russian invasion, Al Jazeera reported on Friday.
The Russian invasion has created the biggest security crisis for the continent ever since the Second World War, has spurred EU countries into rethinking what the bloc should stand for, its economic, defence and energy policies.
The EU imposed sweeping sanctions apart from offering political and humanitarian support to Ukraine in the wake of the Russian invasion, as well as supplying arms to the latter.
But the EU struggled to present a united face when it came to allowing Ukraine entry into the union and decreasing its own dependency upon Russian oil and gas.
While some states were sympathetic to Ukraine others have made it clear that Ukraine will not be allowed to join the EU hastily, something Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has sought and which has some support from Ukraine’s neighbours on the EU’s eastern flank some of whom wanted a firmer signal towards EU membership.
Joining the EU is a long drawn out process taking several years requiring the interested country to meet strict criteria from economic stability to rooting out corruption to respecting liberal human rights.
