Presidents of Poland and Slovakia Andrzej Duda and Zuzana Chaputov announce a series of visits to Western Europe to convince their leaders to give Ukraine the status of a candidate for EU membership.
This is stated on the website of the Head of Poland.
Now Duda and Chaputova met in Bratislava. After the negotiations, they spoke at a joint press conference.
"The idea of granting Ukraine the status of a candidate country to the European Union is important. I accepted the proposal of President Zuzana Chaputova to conduct a kind of lobbying mission for Ukraine among our colleagues in the EU countries, in Western Europe, especially where there are doubts about whether Ukraine should quickly get this status. We have no doubt that this status should be granted as soon as possible," - Duda stressed.
According to the Polish president, he and Chaputova will try to "convince people that the upcoming NATO summit in Madrid should decide to strengthen the presence on the eastern flank of the Alliance, that is, where this russian threat is real, here, where this strong deterrence is very necessary."
Duda stressed that "we have no doubt that it is necessary to support Ukraine in every possible way, so we support Ukraine, including in military terms so that Ukrainians can defend their country as effectively as possible."
Earlier, according to the data of the sociological survey "Eurobarometer," which was conducted in the EU in April, the majority of EU citizens (66%) see Ukraine as part of the European family and are ready to support it.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said at the International Donor Conference of Ukraine in Warsaw that Ukraine needs a candidate's status as a member of the European Union right now in the face of war.