The 24th Ukraine-EU summit is held in Kiev, Ukraine, Feb. 3, 2023. Ukraine and the European Union agreed to deepen their relations and cooperation at the 24th Ukraine-EU summit held in Kiev on Friday, according to a joint statement issued following the event. [Photo/Ukrainian presidential office handout via Xinhua]

The European Union has pledged more support for Ukraine but dismissed any fast-track membership into the bloc, and Russia blasted the meeting at which the matter was discussed as "hypocritical".

A joint statement after the EU-Ukraine summit in Kyiv on Friday praised Ukraine's commitment and progress toward joining the EU but said the bloc will decide on further steps once all conditions specified in the European Commission's opinion are fully met.

"There are no rigid timelines, but there are goals that you have to reach," European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said of Ukraine's accession to the bloc.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky said formal accession negotiations to join the EU should start soon.

"The goal is to start negotiations this year, and this is not just a purpose but a major overwhelming goal."

Kyiv said recently that it hoped to become a full EU member by 2026. The country was granted full-candidate status in the bloc in June.

"We encourage Ukraine to continue strengthening the rule of law, because it benefits every Ukrainian citizen," European Council President Charles Michel said on Friday.

The European Commission is set to report on Ukraine's fulfillment of the conditions in the coming spring.

The 27 EU member states are divided on the issue. While Poland and the Baltic states want to speed up the process, France's President Emmanuel Macron said in May that it could take several decades. Some other European leaders have also opposed any shortcut to EU membership.

Croatia was the last country to join the EU, in 2013, 10 years after it applied. Serbia and Montenegro, which are expected to be next in line to join, have also waited for more than 10 years.

At the summit on Friday, 15 European Commissioners met their Ukrainian counterparts as a show of solidarity.

The EU announced it would double the number of Ukrainian soldiers to be trained by the EU to 30,000 this year.

The EU has earmarked about 60 billion euros ($65 billion) in aid to Ukraine, including 12 billion euros in military support and 18 billion euros in loans with a 10-year grace period, to help run the country this year.

Von der Leyen pledged a 10th round of sanctions against Russia on the one-year anniversary of the start of the Russia-Ukraine conflict on Feb. 24.

Further price caps

On Saturday the EU, the G7 and several other partners adopted further price caps for seaborne Russian petroleum products, such as diesel and fuel oil, in an effort to hit Russia's revenues. The measures came after a price cap for Russian crude oil in December and a day before the EU's full ban on importing seaborne Russian crude oil and petroleum products into the EU on Sunday.

Russia condemned the summit in Kyiv.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, called the EU's readiness to provide further support to Ukraine while calling for peace "equally hypocritical", saying all of the EU's military deliveries and financial support for Kyiv result in "an increase in the number of victims of the conflict, including those among the civilian population", the Anadolu Agency reported.

"It is in vain that the West is trying to do all this," the ministry quoted her as saying. "The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation will achieve all the goals and objectives of the special military operation."

He Zhigao, a researcher at the Institute of European Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, described the summit in Kyiv as more symbolism than substance.

While the summit demonstrates the EU's firm support for Ukraine, the bloc will not just turn on the green light when it comes to membership, He said.

"While the EU will continue to provide comfort and support to Ukraine regarding the accession, it will also have to avoid disappointing the Balkan states that are in the process of joining the EU in order not to endanger the whole European project."

In addition to Ukraine, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia and

Türkiye have been granted candidate status.

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