“Russia will descend into economic, financial and technological decay, while Ukraine is marching towards the European future,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said during her visit to Kyiv, together with the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell.

At a press conference, given together with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, she handed him an official membership questionnaire, a step towards EU candidate country status for Ukraine. “We stand ready to support you in filling out this questionnaire," she said and added: "It will not be, as usual, a matter of years, but rather a matter of weeks”. Volodymyr Zelensky answered “we will be ready with answers next week.”

Ukraine called for more weapons and more severe sanctions against Russia, after accusing Russia of the missile attach which killed 52 and wounded dozens more at the railway station in Kramatrosk in Eastern Ukraine, while thousands of women children and seniors were attempting to flee the war. “Like the massacre in Bucha, like many other Russian war crimes, the missile strike on Kramatorsk must be one of the charges at the tribunal, which is bound to happen... Responsibility is inevitable,” President Zelensky said in his video address last night.

Oligarchs Oleg Deripaska, Boris Rotenberg, Moshe Kantor, as well as Vladimir Putin’s two daughters Maria Vorontsova and Ekaterina Tikhonova have been included in the fifth package of EU sanctions against Russia. 217 more individuals and 18 companies have been added to the sanctions list, which also feature the Kalashnikov concern and the banks VTB, Otkritie, Novikombank and Sovcombank.