Ukraine completes questionnaire for EU membership: Ihor Zhovka

Ihor Zhovkva, deputy head of President Volodymyr Zelensky's office on Sunday said that Ukraine has completed a questionnaire that will form a starting point for the European Union to decide on membership for Kyiv.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen handed the questionnaire to Zelensky during her visit to Kyiv on April 8th, pledging a speedier start to Ukraine's bid to become a member of the EU following Russia's invasion of the country.

"Today, I can say that the document has been completed by the Ukrainian side," Zhovkva told the Ukrainian public broadcaster Sunday evening.

Hw added that the European Commission will need to issue a recommendation on Ukraine's compliance with the necessary membership criteria.

"We expect the recommendation ... to be positive, and then the ball will be on the side of the EU member states,"

Zhovkva added that Ukraine expects to acquire the status of a candidate country for EU accession in June during a scheduled meeting of the European Council meeting.

The European Council is to meet on June 23-24th, according to the Council's schedule on its website.

"Next, we will need to start accession talks. And once we hold those talks, we can already talk about Ukraine's full membership in the EU," Zhovkva said.

Earlier, Zhovka had said that Ukraine has earned its right to EU membership due to its defence of Europe against Russia, He told Euronews that his country needs its application to join the 27 member bloc to be processed as quickly as possible and that it cannot wait years for it.

"We can't afford ourselves years or tens of thousands of years to review Ukraine's application," Zhovkva said. "We need it swiftly. We need it very, very swiftly. We deserve it because we are fighting now not only for Ukraine but for all European nations."