Ukraine could join the EU within WEEKS: Brussels chief Ursula Von Der Leyen vows to accelerate Kyiv's bid to become a member state at historic press briefing with Volodymyr Zelensky after seeing Bucha atrocity victims on her visit to the wartorn country

EU President Ursula von der Leyen today visited the site of the Bucha massacre, a town northwest of Kyiv

She claimed Ukraine could become an official EU member 'within weeks' at an historic press conference

It comes as the bloc is now under renewed pressure to wean member states off reliance on Russian gas

The EU has paid Vladimir Putin 35billion euros for oil and gas since invasion of Ukraine began on February 24

Ukraine could become an official member of the European Union within weeks not years, it was revealed tonight, as Brussels chief Ursula von der Leyen vowed to accelerate the wartorn country's ascension to the bloc in the wake of Russia's invasion.

The European Commission President symbolically handed Volodymyr Zelensky an official membership questionnaire at an historic joint press conference in Kyiv, in a move likely to infuriate Vladimir Putin and his inner circle.

Becoming an EU member state normally takes years, and the process involves several rounds of applications, criteria checks and negotiations.

Kyiv has long aspired to join the European bloc, with the country's foreign minister pointedly using Ukraine's 2021 independence day to tell Politico that Brussels must welcome Moldova, Georgia and Ukraine into the European Union.

However, Ukraine's desire to become an official member state fuelled the Maidan revolution in 2014 which led to Russia's illegal annexation of Crimea. Ukraine already belongs to the EU's Eastern Partnership and European Neighbourhood Policy.

Von der Leyen's public appearance was the EU's latest attempt to offer Kyiv both moral and financial support after Zelensky declared Russia's invasion was a direct attack not only on Ukraine's existence, but the security of Europe as a whole.

'It will not as usual be a matter of years to form this opinion but I think a matter of weeks,' she told the Kyiv press conference. The President also reiterated the West's policy of support for Ukraine, vowing that Putin 'must fail' after the EU unveiled its further sanctions on Russia.

Earlier on Friday, the Brussels chief visited Bucha, where Russian forces have allegedly committed mass murder and rape. Since Russian troops pulled back from the town, Ukrainian officials say hundreds of dead civilians have been found there. Visiting the town on Friday, Von der Leyen said she had witnessed the 'unthinkable'.

Referring to a deadly attack at Kramatorsk railway station earlier in the day, in which dozens of refugees including children were killed, she told the Kyiv news conference: 'The cynical behaviour has almost no benchmark anymore… It is unbelievable.'

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10700383/European-Union-President-Ursula-Von-Der-Leyen-visits-Ukraine-Bucha-massacre-victims.html