The European Union (EU) is probably not ready to assess the risks from the potential entry of Ukraine. This was stated by acting. Permanent Chairman of the Russian Federation to the EU Kirill Logvinov in an interview “Lente.ru”, published on Friday, February 17th.
“As for enlargement, whether it be Ukraine or other states, today the EU does not seem ready to soberly assess the corresponding risks for the Union itself,” he said.
Logvinov also commented on the recent statement by European Council President Charles Michel that the future of Ukraine is in the European Union. He believes that the majority of EU citizens can hold this opinion. Russia, on the other hand, considers Michel’s words and similar statements to be unsupported by political slogans, the acting director noted. permanent mission of the Russian Federation.
In addition, he proposes to separate Kiev’s obtaining the status of a candidate for the EU and its direct entry into the union. The first decision of the EU leaders, according to Loginov, caused disappointment and even indignation in other countries that have been striving to join the union for a long time and have made great efforts for this.
Charles Michel called Ukraine and the EU a single family and said that the future of Ukraine is in the European Union earlier, on February 9, in his speech following the EU summit in Brussels with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and head of the European Commission (EC) Ursula von der Leyen.
On February 14, Ivan Sincic, a member of the European Parliament (EP) from Croatia, assessed the possibility of Ukraine joining the EU. According to him, Kyiv will not be able to carry out the necessary reforms in the country in a few years. At the same time, if the EU has a need, then the state is allowed to join, regardless of how economically backward or corrupt it is, he added.
Prior to that, on February 3, von der Leyen at the summit in Kyiv pointed out the absence of a hard time frame for Ukraine’s accession to the EU. She stressed that everything will depend on the level of preparation of the country for this step.
At the same time, Russian Senator Alexei Pushkov questioned the possibility of an accelerated process of Ukraine’s accession to the European Union. He noted that even the formulation of this issue causes controversy within the community.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky signed an application for the country’s accession to the EU on February 28, 2022.
