It is an envelope in the colors of the Ukrainian and European flags. On Friday 8 April, at the end of her visit to kyiv, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, presented Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky with a questionnaire which will serve as a starting point for a decision on the accession of the Ukraine to the European Union. “It will not be, as usual, a matter of years to form an opinion, but I think a matter of weeks”, she said during a press conference on the spot.
In response, Mr. Zelensky assured the laughter of the assistance that the file will be returned in a week. In the evening, during his daily address to Ukrainians, the President declared that he was convinced that ” we are finally on the verge of achieving our long-standing goal. Ukraine will be one of the equals in the common European home. Ukraine will become a member of the European Union”.
Visit to Boutcha
Ursula von der Leyen’s day in the country at war began with a visit to Boutcha, a town of 37,000 inhabitants in the kyiv region, occupied by Russian forces from February 27 to March 31. The images of corpses of civilians discovered in the streets, some with their hands tied behind their backs, sparked international indignation and prompted Westerners to increase pressure on Moscow. The visit took place in the presence of Josep Borrell, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs, and Denys Chmyhal, Ukrainian Prime Minister.
Facing the bodies exhumed from a mass grave, the President of the Commission, wearing a bulletproof vest, said: “The unthinkable happened here. We have seen the cruel face of the army by (Vladimir) Putin. » Josep Borrell said that the European Union would allocate a budget of 7.5 million euros to support the collection of data on missing persons. “Russian war crimes in Bucha and elsewhere must be investigated and prosecuted. Our civilian mission to Ukraine will support the Prosecutor General of Ukraine in providing training and equipment to support investigations and evidence collection,” he wrote on Twitter.
We bear witness to harrowing images in #Bucha today with Prime Minister @Denys_Shmyhal
Destruction,
atrocities comm… https://t.co/Wg8TTjNlLO
In the morning, as the delegation headed for the battered city, another drama hit eastern Ukraine. At least fifty people, including five children, were killed during a bombardment attributed to Russian forces on Kramatorsk station. Ursula von der Leyen said to herself “deeply shocked” speak “cynical behavior” of those who wrote “for our children” white paint on one of the missiles found not far from the scene.
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