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The latest developments in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. All times EDT:
12:01 a.m.: Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiyy predicted Russia will escalate its attacks this week as European Union leaders consider whether to back his country’s bid to join the bloc and Russia presses its campaign to win control of east Ukraine, Reuters reported.
“Obviously, this week we should expect from Russia an intensification of its hostile activities,” Zelenskiyy said in a Sunday nightly video address. “We are preparing. We are ready.”
Ukraine applied to join the EU four days after Russian troops poured across its border in February. The EU’s executive, the European Commission, on Friday recommended that Ukraine receive candidate status. Leaders of the 27-nation union will consider the question at a summit on Thursday and Friday and are expected to endorse Ukraine’s application despite misgivings from some member states. The process could take many years to complete.
The EU’s embrace of Ukraine would interfere with one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s stated goals when he ordered his troops into Ukraine: to keep Moscow’s southern neighbor outside of the West’s sphere of influence, the Reuters report added.
Putin on Friday said Moscow had “nothing against” Ukraine’s EU membership, but a Kremlin spokesperson said Russia was closely following Kyiv’s bid especially in light of increased defense cooperation among EU members.
For background on Ukraine’s candidacy for EU membership, VOA’s Eastern Europe Chief Myroslava Gongadze has this report from Warsaw.
Some information in this report came from Reuters.
