EU chief promises a signal on Ukraine bid next week
The European Commission will provide a clear signal this week on Ukraine's EU candidate status bid, its chief Ursula von der Leyen said on Saturday, as fighting raged in the east and south of the country. Making a surprise visit to Kyiv, von der Leyen said talks she held with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky "will enable us to finalise our assessment by the end of next week" – the first time the bloc has publicly given a sense of timing. Zelensky has been pressing for rapid admission into the European Union as a way of reducing Ukraine's geopolitical vulnerability, which was brutally exposed by Russia's February 24 incursion. But officials and leaders in the bloc caution that, even with candidacy status, actual EU membership could take years or even decades. Von der Leyen, appearing alongside Zelensky during her second visit to Kyiv since the war began, made no promises. Despite reservations among some member states, EU leaders are expected to approve Ukraine's candidate status at a summit on June 23-24, though with strict conditions attached. Also on Saturday, Luhansk regional governor Sergiy Gaidai cited reports of Russians loading trucks with Ukrainian wheat and taking it to Russian-controlled areas. Before the war, Russia and Ukraine together produced 30 percent of the global wheat supply, but grain is stuck in Ukraine's ports, while Western sanctions have disrupted exports from Russia. Speaking to delegates including Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin and China's defence minister, Zelensky urged international pressure to end the blockade. Meanwhile, Russian forces continued to focus their firepower in areas around Kharkiv and in the Donbas regions of Luhansk and Donetsk overnight, Zelensky's office said, with the regional governor reporting two civilian deaths and 11 injuries Saturday in locations across Donetsk. Moscow has particularly focused on the key eastern industrial city of Severodonetsk, which Gaidai said on Saturday had been "ruined" by Russian forces. "This is their tactics – people are not needed, the infrastructure is not needed, houses are not needed, everything should be simply ruined," he said in an interview posted on Telegram. (Reuters)