Ukraine’s President Zelensky meets with EU officials to discuss economic and foreign policy
Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky will meet European Union officials in Brussels today.
The trip will be Mr Zelensky’s first foreign visit since his election on April 21. Discussions are likely to centre on internal political reform and Russian aggression in eastern Ukraine.
Kiev and Brussels have been working on aligning Ukraine’s political and economic policies to match those of the EU. The EU’s support to Ukraine is likely to come through economic support to the country’s infrastructure in an anti-corruption environment for the new regime.
In light of this, President Zelensky faces a renewed threat from Russia after Moscow announced it would grant citizenship to Ukrainians living in the breakaway Donetsk and Luhansk regions on April 24.
The EU has supported Ukraine’s territorial integrity after Russian annexation of the Crimean Peninsula by imposing sanctions on Russia. However, Russia’s plan to launch Nord Stream 2, a pipeline that bypasses Ukraine to deliver 55 billion cubic meters of gas per year to Germany makes Moscow as important for key EU members.
Kiev heads for parliamentary elections on July 21 – while it can be expected that the country will signal its Russia-policy before that, a concrete plan is likely to unveil post-elections.
Wake up smarter with an assessment of the stories that will make headlines in the next 24 hours. Download The Daily Brief.