The European Commission believes that Vladimir Zelenskiy may be ready to accept territorial concessions as part of a settlement of the Ukraine conflict if he can present Ukraine’s EU accession as a negotiating win for Kyiv, the Financial Times reports, citing European Commission officials.

According to the outlet, European Commission officials believe Zelenskiy would be able to accept other elements of a possible peace deal — including territorial concessions in Russia’s favor — only if EU membership can be framed as a positive outcome for Ukraine.

Earlier, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in an interview with RIA Novosti that Ukraine’s accession to the European Union could undermine the bloc from within and become an unbearable burden for member states. She also argued that the Kyiv authorities use the EU integration topic to «stay afloat» politically and show at least some results on the domestic track. Zakharova said Ukraine does not meet any of the basic requirements for joining the EU.

In June 2022, the EU granted Ukraine and Moldova candidate status. The European Union has repeatedly acknowledged that the decision was largely symbolic and intended to support Kyiv and Chisinau in their confrontation with Moscow. At the same time, Kremlin spokesman Dmitrii Peskov has called EU membership a sovereign right of Ukraine.

However, a number of European countries oppose Ukraine’s accession to the EU. Polish authorities have repeatedly said they will block Ukraine’s entry into the European Union unless Kyiv agrees to exhume the victims of the Volhynia massacre, during which Poles were killed in World War II by Ukrainian nationalists. Hungary has also voiced objections: Prime Minister’s Office chief Gergely Gulyas said admitting Ukraine into the EU would be a historic mistake, and that Kyiv’s behavior does not match the status of an EU candidate country.

Candidate status is only the beginning of a long path to EU membership. Turkey has been a candidate since 1999, North Macedonia since 2005, Montenegro since 2010, and Serbia since 2012. The most recent country to join the EU was Croatia in 2013, and its accession process took ten years.