Long-reads

Discussions about Ukraine receiving post-war reparations from Russia mainly relate to how Ukraine could get access to the Russian assets that have been seized around the globe. Creating such mechanisms is a task for which international law has no readily available answer.

Back in the spring, the international research firm Ipsos surveyed 27 countries on their response to the war in Ukraine. We should admit some states favor Ukraine, but the study did not mention them. So the analysis is about absolute allies or absolute enemies but only about relative indicators.

June 17 was a very good day for Ukraine. Ukraine has won on this front: the European Commission has confirmed that it deserved candidate status.

Andriy Zagorodnyuk: "Kyiv's demands to close the sky" were unrealistic. Ukraine will have to return to NATO membership but it needs to create "competitors of the Alliance"... "

War is back in Europe. We did not know, until a few months ago, that we would have to say this terrible sentence. But today the war is here, in Ukraine, very close to here.

Russia’s immunities are not absolute. National courts should deny immunities related to any lawsuit for losses caused by Russia’s armed aggression in Ukraine

There have been a lot of changes in Ukraine's movement toward EU membership in the previous month. Ukrainian participants in the process radiate cautious optimism and have reason to do so.

The Russian Federation denies the very existence of the Ukrainian nation, while references to Ukraine are removed from the history textbooks.

For Moscow, an unequivocal positive answer from Brussels to Kyiv, Tbilisi and Chisinau will be a significant signal...

After February 24, the small country supported Ukraine as inevitably and powerfully as the US, the UK, and Poland.

Granting Ukraine candidate status should have been unquestionable but politics intervened. Several states persuade Brussels to say no to Kyiv.

La reconnaissance du statut de candidat avec des exigences ambitieuses pour les prochaines étapes créera un outil puissant pour réformer l'Ukraine

De status van kandidaat met ambitieuze vereisten voor verdere toetreding zal een krachtig instrument vormen voor de hervorming van Oekraïne...

El estatus de candidato con requisitos ambiciosos para una mayor adhesión creará una poderosa herramienta para reformar Ucrania...

Die Zuerkennung des Kandidatenstatus einschließlich ehrgeiziger Forderungen bezüglich weiterer Schritte wird ein wirksames Instrumentarium zur Reform der Ukraine schaffen...

Candidate status with ambitious requirements for further accession steps will create a powerful tool for reforming Ukraine...

Ukraine might get a chance to reduce queues at the border with all its Schengen neighbours and get one step closer to a barrier-free Europe.

But this is and must be Ukraine's decision. Because if the West tries to impose it, by limiting aid, or other means, it will lead to catastrophe.