Tusk says Poland working to speed up Ukraine's accession to EU

Poland will work to speed up Ukraine's accession to the association during its presidency of the Council of the European Union (EU). This was stated by Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk on January 15.

"We will overcome the deadlock we are in on this issue. <...> We will speed up the process of accession (of Ukraine to the EU. - Ed.)," he said at a press conference following talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (whose term of office expired on May 20, 2024) in Warsaw. His words were quoted by The Associated Press (AP).

Poland has held the presidency of the EU Council since January 1.

Blocks of discord: the OSCE will start preparing Kyiv for EU and NATO accession

The appointment of a Czech diplomat to the post of Special Representative of the Chairmanship took place without Russia's consent

On December 12 last year, OSCE special representative for Ukraine Maresh told Izvestia that he intended to supervise more than 20 projects adopted in circumvention of Russia, as well as to prepare Kiev for accession to the EU and NATO. In turn, the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, emphasized that Maresh thus intends to deepen the split in Europe.

At the same time, political scientist and associate professor at the Finance University under the Government of Russia Alexei Martynov told Izvestiya that the idea of Ukraine joining the European Union (EU) and NATO was unpromising and the West understood this.

On November 16, the Pentagon said that corruption was a barrier to Ukraine's accession to NATO and the EU. At the same time, the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said on December 19 that the first stage of negotiations on this issue could begin in 2025.

Ukraine applied to join NATO on an accelerated basis on September 30, 2022. Zelensky said then that in fact the country is already in the alliance and meets its standards. The country applied for EU membership on February 28, 2022.