President: Europe must strengthen its unity by giving Ukraine candidate status

“We must strengthen the unity of Europe, true unity. And the main step in this direction should be to grant Ukraine the status of a candidate for membership in the European Union, and subsequently full membership. There can be no temptation in Russia to assume that European countries will not support Ukraine in this matter,” President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky said, addressing the GLOBSEC International Security Forum in Bratislava.

According to him, if Russia feels that Europe is weak and can leave Ukraine without the obviously necessary decision on candidacy, it will be one of the biggest destabilizing factors for the continent during Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine.

The President also underscored the need to respond to all the challenges and dangers that the Russian Federation creates. “Politics, economics, military sphere, food, environment, migration – there is no area of our lives in which there is no catastrophe, crisis or threat of catastrophe or crisis due to Russia's actions,” he stressed.

As noted, the quality of answers directly depends only on unity as any division in Europe is a chance for Russia to continue its aggressive policy.

“I believe you are aware of this. So, I believe that we will be able to protect our continent and our people from everything that threatens us today,” Zelensky stressed.

On February 24, Russian president Vladimir Putin announced the beginning of a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Russian troops shell and destroy key infrastructure facilities, massively fire on residential areas of Ukrainian cities, towns, and villages using artillery, MLRS, and ballistic missiles.

The invaders unleashed mass terror in the temporarily occupied territories.