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Ukraine applies for EU membership after Russia talks yield unclear results

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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.”

Olof Skoog, European Union representative at the United Nations: “Despite tireless diplomatic efforts, including at the highest level, Russia has decided to turn its back to peace, to the rules-based international order as defined, inter alia, in the U.N. charter to diplomacy and to the international community. Russia’s military attack against Ukraine has already caused an alarming number of deaths, injured, internally displaced and refugees. 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. We also condemn the involvement of Belarus in this aggression against Ukraine, and we call on both Russia and Belarus to abide by their international obligations.”

“We’re also alarmed by Russia’s raising of the nuclear alert level. We call on Russia to de-escalate and to immediately return to the previous alert level of its nuclear arsenal and to avoid any actions that could risk the safety or security of the nuclear power plants in Ukraine, a non-nuclear weapon state under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.”

“Russia bears full responsibility for this aggression and the resulting destruction and loss of life. 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. We further call on Russia to engage in earnest, in dialogue with a view to political and diplomatic solution.”