Van der Leyen returns to Kyiv • US continues support for Ukraine with $425 million package

The President of the European Commission, Ursula van der Leyen, is in Kyiv to discuss Ukraine’s future EU membership. In addition to annexation, he wants to talk to President Volodymyr Zelensky about funding “reconstruction that will turn Ukraine into a modern and prosperous democracy.”

Van der Leyen’s visit comes ahead of the publication of the European Commission report on November 8. The commission will assess how far Ukraine has already progressed and answer the question of whether it is possible to start official accession talks with Ukraine.

According to President Zelensky, Ukraine has now evaluated all of the committee’s previous recommendations. On Friday he announced that he had signed a final amendment to the law bringing Ukrainian law into line with Europe’s.

It deals with the amendment of the National Minorities Act. It now allows minorities to use their own language according to EU guidelines. The change in law applies to Hungarian and Romanian minorities in the west of the country. The Ukrainian parliament had already approved the change in the law on September 21.

Van der Leyen’s visit to Kyiv will be his sixth since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. In addition to joining, he will discuss continued European military support and the twelfth round of European sanctions against Russia.

“The most important message we are giving is that we are making sure that we will stand by Ukraine as long as necessary,” von der Leyen told reporters in Kyiv.

Michael Moss