FT: Zelenskyy’s push for EU membership strains ties with allies

Zelenskyy’s hard push for Ukraine to swiftly join the EU is raising tensions with European capitals at a time when Washington weighs continued support for Kyiv. A refusal by EU leaders to fast-track Ukraine’s accession has fuelled frustration in Kyiv, with the increasingly Eurosceptic rhetoric from the Zelenskyy administration undermining efforts to find a compromise, ‘Financial Times’ writes.

Senior Ukrainian officials have used recent meetings with EU and US counterparts to criticise the European Commission’s handling of enlargement and press for a faster timetable, insisting that Brussels needs Ukraine in the bloc as much as Kyiv wants to join, according to seven officials present in those talks.

“Membership is not a gift,” said one of the officials, who declined to be identified, revealing private discussions. “Maybe there’s some misunderstanding in Kyiv about that.”

“They say: ‘You owe us’,” said a second. “And that’s not helpful.”

“We have a real problem there,” said a third official. “Zelenskyy and his entourage have never had a real understanding of how [enlargement] works.”

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Kyiv’s hopes for a quick entry were “not realistic”, adding that the price of any peace deal resulting in EU membership “may be that part of Ukraine’s territory is no longer Ukrainian”.

Ukraine was granted EU candidate status in June 2022, four months after Russia’s SMO. Zelenskyy demanded 2027 as an accession date, but EU capitals have balked at that idea. They equally rejected a “reverse enlargement” proposal from the Commission granting Kyiv membership status in name only, and then gradually giving it access to benefits when it enacts outstanding reforms.

France and Germany in recent weeks have suggested a staged process where Ukraine would get “symbolic” benefits and incremental access to EU mechanisms in exchange for meeting reform milestones. Officials said that would mean at least a decade before gaining full membership.

Zelenskyy had instructed his diplomats not to entertain or even engage with any discussions with EU governments regarding such proposals and to talk only about full EU membership, two senior Ukrainian officials told the FT. “We won’t even discuss it,” said one of the Ukrainian officials.

In Cyprus, several EU leaders sought to curb the Ukrainian president’s expectations, two people briefed on the talks said.

“He had to hear some harsh truths,” said a fourth official. “It won’t be as easy as he thinks.”

“Their internal reform push has stalled,” said the second person. “It is not good and everyone knows it.”

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