{"id":629455,"date":"2025-12-13T03:32:12","date_gmt":"2025-12-13T03:32:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/629455\/"},"modified":"2025-12-13T03:32:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-13T03:32:12","slug":"ukraine-war-briefing-reports-ukraine-would-join-eu-in-2027-met-with-scepticism-ukraine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/629455\/","title":{"rendered":"Ukraine war briefing: Reports Ukraine would join EU in 2027 met with scepticism | Ukraine"},"content":{"rendered":"
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    Ukraine would join the European Union as early as January 2027 under the latest US plan to end the war with Russia<\/strong>, a senior source told Agence France-Presse on Friday. \u201cIt\u2019s stated there but it\u2019s a matter for negotiation, and the Americans support it,\u201d the official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said. The complicated EU accession process usually takes years and requires a unanimous vote from all 27 members of the bloc. Some countries, most notably Hungary, have consistently voiced opposition to Ukraine<\/a> joining.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

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    The proposal was met with scepticism in Brussels, with diplomats and officials dismissing it as unrealistic.<\/strong> \u201c2027, it\u2019s tomorrow,\u201d said an EU official referring to the normally long time it takes to get things done in Brussels. \u201cAs if the Americans are going to decide for us,\u201d a European diplomat said. \u201cIt\u2019s nonsense: there needs to be an appetite for enlargement that isn\u2019t there.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

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    Volodymyr Zelenskyy will visit Berlin on Monday for talks on bilateral relations and peace negotiations over the war. <\/strong>The Ukrainian president and Germany\u2019s Friedrich Merz will be joined by \u201cmany European heads of state and government\u201d and top representatives of the EU and Nato for further discussions, a German government statement said. US envoy Steve Witkoff will also meet Zelenskyy and European leaders in Berlin this weekend, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, citing officials. Witkoff would meet with his counterparts from the UK, France and Germany on Sunday and Monday, the newspaper said.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

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    Europeans and Ukrainians are asking the US to provide them with \u201csecurity guarantees\u201d before any territorial negotiations in Russian-occupied eastern Ukraine<\/strong>, the French presidency said on Friday. \u201cWe need full visibility on the security guarantees that Europeans and Americans can give to Ukrainians before any settlement on contentious territorial issues,\u201d the Elysee said ahead of the Berlin meeting. Kyiv is under pressure from the White House to secure a quick peace but is pushing back on a US-backed plan many say favours Moscow.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

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    The EU agreed on Friday to indefinitely freeze \u20ac210bn (\u00a3185bn\/$247bn) of<\/strong> Russian central bank assets held in Europe. <\/strong>The <\/strong>European Council president, Ant\u00f3nio Costa, confirmed on Friday EU leaders had delivered on a commitment, made in October, to \u201ckeep Russian assets immobilised until Russia ends its war of aggression against Ukraine and compensates for the damage caused\u201d, Jennifer Rankin writes<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

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    The EU decision came hours after Russia\u2019s central bank said it was filing a lawsuit against Euroclear, the Brussels central securities depository that holds the \u20ac210bn.<\/strong> The lawsuit, being filed in a Moscow court, claims Euroclear\u2019s \u201cillegal actions\u201d had caused \u201cdamage\u201d to the central bank\u2019s ability to manage funds and securities. Euroclear declined to comment, but a spokesperson said it was \u201ccurrently fighting more than 100 legal claims in Russia\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

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    Russia on Friday sentenced top international criminal court (ICC) judges and its chief prosecutor to jail terms, in a retaliatory move after the court issued an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin<\/strong> over the Ukraine war. The Moscow city court found that \u201cICC prosecutor Karim Khan unlawfully prosecuted Russian citizens in The Hague\u201d and that the ICC \u201cinstructed the judges of the chamber to issue patently unlawful arrest warrants\u201d. Khan was sentenced to 15 years in jail in absentia, while eight ICC staff \u2013 including the former court president Piotr Hofmanski \u2013 received prison terms ranging from 3.5 to 15 years.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

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    Ukrainian forces said they had retaken parts of the north-eastern town of Kupiansk and had encircled Russian troops there as Zelenskyy visited the area and praised the operation<\/strong>. Moscow has said it is advancing on all fronts and that it has seized Kupiansk and the strategic city of Pokrovsk<\/a> in the east. Kyiv has denied this, saying fighting is continuing.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

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    Ukrainian drones struck two Russian oil rigs in the Caspian Sea<\/strong>, an official in Kyiv\u2019s SBU security service said on Friday. The source said SBU drones hit the Filanovsky and Korchagin oil rigs, which both belong to Russia\u2019s Lukoil. The Filanovsky rig \u2013 part of Russia\u2019s largest Caspian oilfield \u2013 came under attack earlier this week.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

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    Russia attacked two Ukrainian ports on Friday, damaging three Turkish-owned vessels including a ship carrying food supplies<\/strong>, Ukrainian officials and one shipowner said. The attack came hours after the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdo\u011fan, told Putin that a limited ceasefire for energy facilities and ports could be beneficial.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

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    Donald Trump said on Friday a contentious US-proposed free economic zone in Ukraine-controlled parts of the eastern Donbas would work, without giving further details.<\/strong> On Thursday Zelenskyy had questioned the proposal<\/a>, saying: \u201cWho will govern this territory, which they are calling a \u2018free economic zone\u2019 or a \u2018demilitarised zone\u2019 \u2013 they don\u2019t know.\u201d He said the plan was not fair without solid guarantees Russian troops would not simply take over the zone after a Ukrainian withdrawal.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ukraine would join the European Union as early as January 2027 under the latest US plan to end…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":629456,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7654],"tags":[2000,299,657],"class_list":{"0":"post-629455","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ukraine","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-ukraine"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115710154788004606","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629455","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=629455"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629455\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/629456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=629455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=629455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=629455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}