Ukraine applies for EU membership after Russia talks yield unclear results

Five days into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed an application for membership into the European Union (EU). Pictures of the signing were tweeted out by Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal. Video of the signing can be found above.

“This is the choice of Ukraine and the Ukrainian people. We more than deserve it,” Shmyhal wrote in the caption of the tweet.

While a major source of the pre-invasion tensions between Russia and Ukraine was Ukraine’s potential NATO membership, the EU has taken a strong pro-Ukraine stance since the invasion began. That continued Monday, when the EU’s representative to the United Nations spoke at an emergency meeting of the U.N. General Assembly. Clips of his speech are included in the video above.

“We condemn, in the strongest possible terms, the unprovoked invasion of Ukraine by armed forces of the Russian Federation in violation of Ukraine’s independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity,” Olof Skoog said. “We demand from Russia to cease its military operations, immediately and unconditionally, and to withdraw all forces and military equipment from the entire territory of Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders.”

In addition to backing Ukraine, EU officials have called for support to the hundreds of thousands of refugees who have left Ukraine. A vast majority of those refugees have ended up in EU-backed nations.

The EU membership application signing also came as peace talks between Russia and Ukraine wrapped up. While it doesn’t appear that much progress on reaching a ceasefire agreement was made during the five-hour talks, it also appears there will be future talks down the line.

“The parties have determined several priority topics on which certain decisions have been envisioned,” Mykhailo Podoliak, a top adviser to President Zelenskyy, said after the talks. “The parties have discussed the possibility to hold in the nearest time a second round of negotiations where these issues will get to be practically developed.”

Russian presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky added “the next meeting will take place in the coming days on the Polish-Belarusian border.”