KYIV: Ukraine will complete the technical work needed to open negotiations on all topics for its European Union accession process within days, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Monday.

Zelensky reiterated his call on the EU partners to agree on a firm date for Ukraine to join the bloc, saying that would provide an important guarantee of the country’s future security as Kyiv negotiates with Moscow to end the war.

“We are ready, but not all leaders of the European Union are… I mean, not everyone is ready to give Ukraine this opportunity,” Zelensky told reporters in a WhatsApp media chat.

Ukraine became a formal EU candidate country in the early days after Russia’s invasion in February 2022. But so far, Kyiv’s progress through the existing EU process has been held up by Hungary, which has blocked the unanimous approval required to open formally each of the six so-called accession “clusters” of issues to be resolved.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who has maintained the bloc’s closest ties with Russia and is facing key elections in April, has also derailed the latest EU aid package to Ukraine, worth 90 billion euros over this year and next.

Russian strikes

Russian strikes have killed at least eight people in Ukraine including during an attack on a civilian passenger train, Ukrainian authorities said on Monday.

Three people were killed in the embattled eastern city of Kramatorsk, a Ukrainian stronghold that Russian forces are advancing towards, the head of the city’s military administration said.

Published in Dawn, March 3rd, 2026