European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen praised Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy during an unannounced visit to Kyiv for making progress on his country’s bid to join the European Union and said they will address how to fund the rebuilding of the war-torn nation.
“You have done a lot on strengthening the rule of law but there still need to be reforms implemented to fight corruption, for example,” von der Leyen said during a joint appearance with Zelenskyy, noting the EU is preparing its opinion on Ukraine’s membership application. “The discussion today will enable us to finalize the assessment by the end of next week.”
The head of the EU’s executive arm made her second visit to Kyiv since the Russian invasion last February at a critical moment for Ukraine, whose army is facing heavy combat in the eastern part of its territory and is struggling to cover a financial gap of around 5 billion euros ($5.3 billion) per month.
