Italy wants Ukraine to join the European Union, said Italian prime minister

Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi supported Ukraine's membership in the European Union

This was stated by Prime Minister Draghi after the speech of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Italian Parliament, Ansa reports.

"We want to pave the way for Ukraine's closer proximity to Europe: it is a long process consisting of the necessary reforms. Italy is close to Ukraine in this process. Italy wants Ukraine to join the European Union," said the Italian prime minister.

Draghi also noted that Ukraine is not only defending itself, "it is defending our peace, freedom, and security."

Italy is grateful to her for that, he said.

"In Italy, we have frozen assets worth more than 800 million euros to Russian oligarchs," he said.

As Rubryka reported, the European Commission promises to prepare an official opinion on Ukraine's readiness to receive EU candidate status as soon as possible.

The Office of the President of Ukraine insists that the work of the European Commission will be significantly faster than in other countries, which have gone this way.

An optimistic, but at the same time, realistic, deadline for granting Ukraine candidate status is the EU summit at the end of June 2022.