Zelensky demands 'immediate' EU membership for Ukraine

[crickets]

17. Good for Ukraine. The application was signed today.

Link to tweet

https://news.sky.com/story/ukraine-invasion-president-volodymyr-zelenskyy-signs-application-to-join-european-union-12554301

Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the country's president, shared an image of himself flanked by Denys Shmyhal, his prime minister, and Ruslan Stefanchuk, chairman of the Ukrainian parliament, as he signed the document. [snip]

He has asked the EU to allow Ukraine to gain membership immediately under a special procedure as it defends itself from invasion by Russian forces.

The application to the EU was largely symbolic and the process could take years, with Ukraine having been weakened by endemic corruption for many years, making the benchmarks of approval extremely hard to reach.

However, the move is still unlikely to sit well with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who does not want Ukraine to have a strong relationship with the West.