LUXEMBOURG: The European Union launches accession negotiations with Ukraine and Moldova on Tuesday, setting the fragile ex-Soviet states on a long path towards membership that Russia has tried to block.
The landmark move is aimed in particular at signalling a vote of confidence in Ukraine's future as Moscow has momentum on the battlefield almost two and a half years into the Kremlin's attack.
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky called it a "historic day" ahead of the start of talks between officials from Kyiv and the EU's 27 member states in Luxembourg.
"We will never be derailed from our path to a united Europe and to our common home of all European nations," the Ukrainian leader wrote on social media.
Ukraine and later its neighbour Moldova lodged their bids to join the EU in the immediate aftermath of Russia's assault in February 2022.
The start of the talks marks just the beginning of a protracted process of reforms strewn with political obstacles that will likely take many years -- and may never lead to membership.
Standing in the way along that journey will be not just Russia's efforts at destabilisation but reticence from doubters inside the EU, most notably Hungary.
But European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen called the opening of talks "very good news for the people of Ukraine, Moldova, and the entire European Union."
So far, Ukraine -- represented at the talks by Deputy Prime Minister Olga Stefanishyna -- has won plaudits for kickstarting a raft of reforms on curbing graft and political interference, even as war rages.
The meetings with Ukraine and Moldova on Tuesday will set off a process of screening of how far laws in the countries already comply with EU standards and how much more work lies ahead.
Once that is done the EU then has to begin laying out conditions for negotiations on 35 subjects -- from taxation to environmental policy.
The talks also come at a tense time in Moldova after the United States, Britain and Canada warned of a Russian "plot" to influence the country's presidential elections coming up in October.
Wedged between war-torn Ukraine and EU member Romania, Moldova's pro-Western authorities frequently accuse the Kremlin of interfering in its internal affairs.
President Maia Sandu has accused Moscow -- which has troops stationed in a breakaway region of the country -- of aiming to destabilise Moldova ahead of the vote.
"Our future is within the European family," Sandu wrote on X. "We are stronger together." — AFP
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