The sounds of anti-aircraft sirens greeted the President of the Commission yesterday Ursula von der Leyen and President of the European Council Charles Michel meeting with the President of Ukraine in Kyiv in front of EU representatives Vladimir Zelensky. Top EU officials have sent messages of unwavering European solidarity with the hard-hit country as a year approaches from the start of the Russian invasion, but have not backed the Ukrainian leadership’s central demand for her country’s early accession to the Union, bypassing normal accession procedures.

“The EU will support the Ukrainian people in the face of Russia’s ongoing war of aggression for as long as it takes,” the two European officials and the President of Ukraine said in a joint statement. “Our resolve will not waver. Moreover, we will support your every step on the path to the EU “, – Charles Michel wrote on Twitter, addressing the citizens of Ukraine. On the crucial issue of joining the Union, Ursula von der Leyen said that “there are no strict time limits” and that it is about “fulfilling the accession criteria.”

One of the main demands of the Europeans is to fight the widespread corruption that has plagued Ukraine since its independence after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Ursula von der Leyen yesterday expressed satisfaction with the recent steps taken in this direction by the Zelensky government, the removal of state officials and the initiation of legal cases against the oligarchs. For his part, the Ukrainian president asked his interlocutors for new, tougher sanctions against Russia. In the near future, the EU aims to ban the import of refined products from Russia.

“Fortress Bahamut”

On the combat front, Moscow has reported new troop advances near the town of Bakhmut in Donetsk Oblast, which appears to be almost completely surrounded, even though Zelenskiy said yesterday that the Ukrainians are determined to hold the “Bakhmut Fortress”. CIA director William Burns said his agency estimated that the next six months would decide the outcome of the war. Washington and Moscow have flatly denied reports in the Swiss newspaper Neue Zurcher Zeitung that Burns made a clandestine trip to the Russian capital to make a peace proposal that included the transfer of one-fifth of Ukraine’s territory to Russia. As the war appears to be approaching a critical juncture, the delivery of heavy Western weapons to Kyiv is accelerating. The German parliament approved the delivery of old Leopard 1 tanks, which will be added to the 14 modern Leopard 2 tanks that are expected to be delivered to the Ukrainians. However, the Germans have a problem with the ammunition of these tanks, and they are trying to solve it as soon as possible.