Europe’s week: Fallout from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continues

For a few years now, Russia has executed all the things to sow division within the West, actively supporting populist forces of disruption and disunity.

However now, the Russian invasion of Ukraine has despatched long-cherished taboos tumbling.

Sweden and Finland at the moment are considering of becoming a member of NATO.

In a extremely uncommon transfer, Switzerland joined the European Union in sanctioning Russia.

And in maybe probably the most beautiful reversal, Germany deserted its decades-long refusal to prioritise navy spending and sending arms to battle zones.

The elephant within the room now, although, is Ukrainian membership of the EU, which Ursula von der Leyen, European Fee president, informed Euronews is a sensible prospect.

“And certainly, over time, they belong to us. They’re one in every of us. And we wish them in,” von der Leyen mentioned.

Following these phrases from the EU Fee president on Sunday, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy wasted no time to name for his nation’s EU membership.

Throughout an emotional particular session of the European Parliament, Zelenskyy made his case to MEPs through video hyperlink.

“Now we have confirmed our energy…show that you’re along with us…then life will win over dying and light-weight over darkness,” the Ukrainian president mentioned on Tuesday.

The Ukrainian ambassador to the United Nations additionally mentioned this week: “If Ukraine doesn’t survive, we can’t be shocked if democracy fails subsequent.”

The anti-Russian sanctions following the assault on Ukraine had been quite a few this week too.

Even within the worlds of sports activities and tradition, Russia was ostracised, with FIFA and UEFA kicking out the nationwide workforce and golf equipment from their competitions.

And confronted with one of many largest inflow of refugees in years, the EU agreed to set off a never-before-used directive to grant momentary safety for Ukrainians fleeing the battle.

Multiple million Ukrainians have fled the nation since Russia’s invasion started one week in the past, in response to the UN refugee company.

The overwhelming majority of those exiled folks have arrived in EU international locations, with Poland registering over half one million Ukrainian refugees and Hungary seeing greater than 130,000 arrivals.

To deal with the big and abrupt variety of migrants, the 27 member states have dusted off a 2001 EU directive that had by no means been used earlier than and is designed to offer fast help and safety to battle refugees.

The Short-term Safety Directive circumvents the historically overburdened asylum process and gives a fast and simplified path to entry safety throughout the EU.

Ukrainian refugees will likely be given residence permits to remain contained in the bloc for a minimum of one yr, a interval that will likely be robotically prolonged for an additional yr. Member states can then determine to lengthen the distinctive measure by another yr if the battle continues to ravage the nation.