KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The European Union’s decision to make Ukraine a candidate for EU membership has offered war-weary Ukrainians a morale boost even as the country’s military ordered its fighters to retreat from a key city in the eastern Donbas region. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy hailed the decision of EU leaders as vindication for his nation’s fight against Russia’s aggression. Others recalled the 2014 revolution that ousted Ukraine’s pro-Moscow president, sparked in part by his decision not to complete an EU association agreement. Russian President Vladimir Putin opposed the agreement, just as he demanded before the current war that Ukraine is kept out of NATO. Ukraine applied for EU membership less than a week after Russia invaded.
Ukrainians cheer nation’s EU candidacy amid wartime woes
