UKRAINE INCHES CLOSER TO EU ‘DREAM’ AFTER A DECADE OF WAR Ukraine is returning to Europe, where it has belonged for centuries says Zelenskiy

A veteran of Ukraine’s 2014 revolution now fighting Russian invaders, Yehor Sobolev knows the price of Kyiv’s decade-long drive to join the European Union as well as anyone.

Having backed key reforms as a lawmaker after that pro-democracy uprising, he says he will look on proudly from the front as Brussels opens formal accession talks with Kyiv on Tuesday (June 25).

The launch of talks, though largely ceremonial, is an important step for a nation that has spilled blood and pushed through painful reforms in its pursuit of EU membership.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy hailed the milestone on Friday (June 21), saying “Ukraine is returning to Europe, where it has belonged for centuries, as a fully fledged member of the European community.”

Kyiv filed its request to join just days after Russia’s February 2022 invasion and sees membership as validation of its costly fight to embrace European values.

It now faces a lengthy path to accession, a drawn-out process that will require a major overhaul of a bureaucracy still riddled with Soviet vestiges.

The task will be greatly complicated by the 28-month-old full-scale war with Russia that has no end in sight with neither Moscow nor Kyiv showing any sign of compromise.