Zelenskyy: Ukraine wants EU respect

Paris, May 11 (EFE).- Ukraine wants its respect for the European Union to be reciprocated, president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Wednesday.

“Ukraine is a full-fledged European country, which respects the countries of the EU and wants the same respect,” he said in a video conference with students at the Sciences Po university in Paris.

“Welcoming Ukraine into the European political community while keeping it at a distance is like being invited to a family dinner but not having a chair,” the president added.

Zelenskyy said Ukraine would not be in a permanent state of uncertainty and that Brussels was not taking concrete steps to accept its proposed membership of the EU.

“It is like a couple who have been living together for years and one of them promises the other that they will get married but is it nothing but a promise,” Zelenskyy said.

Ukraine formally applied for EU membership shortly after the Russian invasion in February.

The European Commission said that it would give its “opinion” on Ukraine’s application in June.

Zelenskyy also claimed that if Nato would have accepted Ukraine as an ally, the war would have never happened.

“It was a mistake that Nato did not make room for Ukraine earlier,” he said. EFE

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