The president of the European Parliament has boosted Ukrainians’ hopes for rapid European integration by calling for talks between Brussels and Kiev later this year. Roberta Metsola traveled to Lviv, in the west of the invaded country, where an international conference was held to discuss the establishment of a court to prosecute Russian war crimes against civilians and pay reparations for the damage done to Ukraine, which is in a critical situation is in Bakhmut.
“I am hopeful that accession negotiations can start this year. Ukraine’s future lies in the European Union,” said the Maltese leader, who was one of the first international leaders to travel to Kiev last year. “The pace at which the Verkhovna Rada [Parlamento] and the government is making progress on the EU bid, which impresses me,” he said.
In a social media post, Volodymyr Zelensky, who hosted the President of the European Parliament, thanked Metsola and said Ukraine “intends to finalize the implementation of the European Commission’s recommendations as soon as possible and to start negotiations to to join the EU at this time. Metsola also advised member states to increase military support and “consider deploying fighter jets”.
At the conference in Lviv, attended by European Commissioner of Justice Didier Reynders and US Attorney General Merrick Garland, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced in a video conference an agreement to establish the International Center for the prosecution of crimes of aggression in The Hague.
The Joint Investigation Team, which will gather evidence of crimes committed by Russian forces during the invasion of Ukraine, is part of Eurojust, the EU’s criminal justice agency, and will include the International Criminal Court, Slovakia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania , Poland, Ukraine and Romania.
In what appears to be a contest to see who is closest to the frontline, the Russian Defense Ministry has announced that Sergei Shoigu has visited soldiers in occupied Ukraine. The head of the Wagner mercenaries, Yevgeny Prigozhin, has shown videos and images of himself near Bakhmut, where the attempt to capture the city is taking place. Ukrainian Army Special Operations Forces commander Viktor Khorenko visited Bakhmut to oversee the work of his units as analysts question how long the Ukrainians will hold out.
Source: DN
