Russia has “nothing” against Ukraine’s eventual entry into the European Union (EU), Russian President Vladimir Putin assured Friday, with the European Commission recommending candidate status to Ukraine amid the offensive. Russian army.
“We have nothing against it, joining economic unions is a sovereign decision (…). It’s your business, the business of the Ukrainian people,” Putin told the plenary session of the International Economic Forum in St. Petersburg. “
“Unlike NATO, the EU is not a military alliance,” he continued, referring to the US-led transatlantic defense agreement in which Kyiv was expected to join.
“As far as economic integration is concerned, the choice is theirs,” insisted Putin, who on February 24 ordered military intervention in Ukraine, formerly as a government from “neo-Nazis” to the Russian-speaking minority. Citing the need for defence, he said. It is called. from Kyiv.
However, Putin also said that if Ukraine is included in the European Union, it will become a “quasi-colony” of Western countries. “That’s my opinion,” he said.
Hours earlier, Russian diplomacy accused the EU of manipulating Ukraine with the prospect of membership.
“Western countries have been manipulating this idea of some kind of Ukrainian participation in their integration framework for years, and Ukraine has gone from bad to worse since then,” said Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova.
