Ukraine starts EU accession talks

Ukraine formally started EU accession talks on Tuesday, more than a decade after pro-western demonstrations in Kyiv called for the country to join the bloc despite Russian threats and the invasions that followed.

EU ministers met Ukrainian officials in Luxembourg to mark the beginning of a process that is set to take years but which marks a hugely symbolic moment for a country fighting off Russia’s full-scale invasion, now in its third year.

“Today is a historic day when we move to actual, real negotiations with the European Union regarding Ukraine’s membership,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Tuesday.

“When we signed the application for EU membership on the fifth day of the full-scale war, many said it was nothing but a dream. But we made this dream a reality,” Zelenskyy added.

Ukrainian EU affairs minister Olha Stefanishyna, who travelled to Luxembourg, told the Financial Times that “we have surpassed the barrier of promise to delivery”, noting that the decision was “merit-based” as her country had met all the criteria for negotiations to commence.

Later on Tuesday the bloc will also start talks with neighbouring Moldova, a former Soviet republic that applied for EU membership weeks after Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Charles Michel, European Council president, said the two countries were “embarking on a true transformation into full EU membership — a proud moment for both nations and a strategic step for the EU”.

Germany’s foreign minister Annalena Baerbock highlighted the “important signal” this step represented. “[Russian President Vladimir] Putin wanted to annex Ukraine. Instead, [the country] is now closer to the EU than ever before,” she said.

At the meetings, the EU will present both countries with a “negotiating framework” of reforms and legislation they need to adopt before being deemed ready to join.

The start of accession talks was timed to take place before Hungary, the EU’s most pro-Russia member, takes over the rotating presidency of the bloc on July 1 — a six-month role that allows that country to steer policy priorities.

Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has held up several Ukraine-related decisions, including on the start of membership talks, though he eventually relented, saying Budapest would have plenty more opportunities to veto the process down the road. EU officials expect substantive negotiations to start under the Polish presidency of the bloc that starts on January 1.

Stefanishyna said “starting from 2025, we will push for a very dynamic accession process”.

The start of talks signifies a monumental step for Ukraine. Stefanishyna said the roughly 90 per cent of Ukrainians shown by polls as seeing their future in the EU were “head over heels”.

In 2013 tens of thousands of Ukrainians took to the streets in what was dubbed the pro-democracy “Euromaidan” uprising following pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovych’s decision to pull out of a closer association agreement with the EU.

That movement eventually led to Yanukovych seeking refuge in Russia and put the country firmly on a pro-western path, despite threats from Putin not to allow Ukraine to leave what he described as his sphere of influence. More than 100 protesters, known as the “heavenly hundred”, and 13 police officers were killed in the uprising.

Putin’s subsequent annexation of Crimea, his war in eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region and the 2022 full-scale invasion of the country have cost the lives of more than 15,000 civilians, according to the UN, which has said that the real figure is likely to be much higher.

On the military side, Kyiv has said more than 100,000 of its soldiers have been wounded or killed since 2022. Western capitals estimate the equivalent number for Russian casualties to be at least 350,000.