The European Union offered strong support to Ukraine at a summit in Kyiv as air raid sirens sounded on Friday, but did not set “any hard deadline” for it to join the bloc. In addition, the EU and Ukraine agreed on Friday to create an investigative office in The Hague, a kind of temporary prosecutor’s office, which should coordinate the collection of evidence regarding the “crime of aggression” by Russia, Reuters and AFP reported.

The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, the Chairman of the European Council, Charles Michel, and the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, took part in the summit, which was held under the sign of the permanent threat of a new missile attack by Russia.

Air raid sirens rang out in Kyiv and Ukraine on Friday morning and afternoon as top European Union officials visited the country for a summit where the EU showed its support for a country invaded by its neighbor Russia.

There is no set timetable for joining the EU

“We will support you every step of the way on your way to the EU,” Charles Michel promised on Twitter after arriving in the Ukrainian capital on Friday, where air raid sirens blared in the morning, a reminder of the constant risk of fresh Russian missile fire. .

Ukraine is officially a candidate for membership from June 2022. It’s a difficult process that requires numerous reforms that could take years, but Kyiv hopes to speed it up.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Friday that there are no hard deadlines for Ukraine’s accession to the European Union and that there are goals that Kyiv must achieve in its accession efforts.

“There are no hard deadlines, but there are goals that need to be achieved,” she said, answering a question about Ukraine’s accession.

On the other hand, Zelenskyy told the Europeans that Ukraine will not lose “a single day” to move towards joining the EU.

“Our goal is absolutely clear: to start negotiations on the accession of Ukraine,” he said in a Telegram message that accompanied the video of the European leaders’ arrival at the summit. “We will not lose a single day in our work to bring Ukraine and the EU together,” he added.

New sanctions against Russia

The EU has promised that the tenth package of sanctions against Russia will be implemented by February 24, the anniversary of the war.

The European Union (EU) said on Friday it wants to find a way to use frozen Russian assets in Western countries to finance the reconstruction of Ukraine, a measure demanded by Kyiv but which is legally difficult to implement, AFP reported.

“The EU will step up (…) its efforts to use frozen Russian assets to support the recovery of Ukraine (…) in accordance with European and international law,” said European Council President Charles in a press release from Michel. and the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen.

The President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyi, for his part, said that EU sanctions against Russia should be aimed at preventing Moscow from restoring its military potential.

Zelensky calls for long-range weapons to liberate Donbas

President Volodymyr Zelenskyi said on Friday that Ukraine will fight to preserve its eastern “fortress” Bakhmut as long as it can, and called on the West to provide long-range weapons to help Kiev push Russian troops out of Donbas.

“No one will give Bakhmut away. We will fight as long as we can. We consider Bakhmut our fortress,” Zelenskyy said at a press conference in Kyiv after the summit with the leaders of the European Union.

“Ukraine could hold Bakhmut and liberate the occupied Donbas if it received long-range weapons,” he said.

The EU and Kyiv will create an office to investigate “crimes of aggression” by Moscow.

“We support the establishment of the International Center for the Prosecution of Crimes of Aggression in Ukraine (ICPA) in The Hague,” the EU and Ukraine said in a joint statement after the Ukraine-EU summit in Kyiv.

Its purpose is to “coordinate the investigation of the crime of aggression against Ukraine, preserve evidence for future court proceedings,” the report says.

This center is intended as an intermediate step before the creation of a special court to try the highest Russian officials at the request of Kyiv.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) only has jurisdiction over war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Ukraine, not over Russia’s “crimes of aggression,” as Moscow and Kyiv are not signatories to the Treaty of Rome, which establishes such jurisdiction.

The crime of aggression is attributed to the country’s top political and military leadership.

The EU supports the creation of a court competent for this type of crime, but its exact form raises complex legal questions.

The European Commission presented two options: a special international court based on a multilateral treaty, or a mixed court governed by Ukrainian law but composed of international judges.

Ukraine wants to create a special court that would try Vladimir Putin based on the resolution of the UN General Assembly.

But some countries, such as Germany, doubt that the creation of such a court will receive sufficient support in the UN, and advocate the creation of a hybrid court.

According to the Commission, this center will be located at the headquarters of Eurojust, the EU’s agency for judicial cooperation in criminal matters.

He will be included in the “joint investigative group”, which has already been formed by six EU countries (Lithuania, Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Slovakia, Romania) and Ukraine, and in which the Prosecutor’s Office of the ICC also participates.

“We will be ready to start work very quickly,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in Kyiv on Thursday when she announced the structure.

Kyiv expects a new Russian offensive

In the conditions, when it will soon be a year since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Kyiv expects another major offensive by Moscow, as soon as the weather conditions allow it.

After a series of humiliating defeats in the fall, the Kremlin mobilized hundreds of thousands of reservists and intensified ground offensives, particularly in eastern Ukraine.

Russian troops have achieved some success on the battlefield around the city of Bakhmut, which they have been trying to capture since the summer.

To support the Ukrainian troops, Western countries, after long delays, fearing to provoke an escalation of the conflict, finally agreed to send German-designed Leopard heavy tanks, American Abrams and British Challenger.

But Kyiv has not yet received the precision missiles with a range of more than 100 km, which its military says it needs to hit Russian logistics lines, nor the fighter jets it is requesting.

The promised supply of tanks in any case increased the anger of Moscow, which presents to its public opinion the invasion of Ukraine as a war aimed at preventing the West from destroying Russia, AFP notes.