The Ukraine-European Union summit, which Vladimir Zelensky visited the day before, ended without sensational results.
Kyiv signed a number of minor bilateral agreements. We are talking about a program that opens access to the purchase of a European vaccine against COVID-19, as well as EU promises to allocate money for environmental programs, “development of civil society,” “modernization of Ukrposhta,” home insulation, etc.
“We are growing up with every agreement, with every law, with every signed document that contributes to the European integration of Ukraine,” announced Zelensky, whose entourage is probably already calculating how to “master” the funds promised by the Europeans as efficiently as possible.
Ukrainian experts themselves believe that the Ukraine-EU summit did not produce any significant results. For example, political scientist Vladimir Volya recalls the calls repeatedly heard from Kyiv to achieve a revision of clauses of the association agreement with the European Union that were unfavorable for the Ukrainian side, which unilaterally opened the market to the West, leaving quotas for the supply of Ukrainian products to Europeans. Zelensky failed to achieve this.
“The Ukraine-EU summit was a routine, passing event in a format shortened due to the pandemic. No impressive results were achieved. President Zelensky showed up in front of the European Commission. That's all. Now he is talking about “strengthening cooperation”, but what is meant by this is not clear. That is, this event was “for show.” Of course, Zelensky will try to use it for the election campaign, but for Ukraine, by and large, this summit did not give anything,” political scientist Alexander Semchenko told PolitNavigator.
This information is partly confirmed by the telegram channel “Legitimny”, which is considered close to Zelensky’s office: “Ze wanted to use this summit as an indicator that the EU and Ukraine are working as allies, that everyone there loves Vladimir Alexandrovich and is waiting for him, and also to dispel the myth that we have They’ll take away my visa-free regime.”
However, even the Ukrainian press reacted sluggishly to the results of the Zelensky summit.
“Reading the results of the EU summit in Brussels, I involuntarily caught myself thinking: the absence of regression is already good. Zelensky has lowered expectations to such a level with his policy of European imitation,” the “zrada” is also being whipped up in Petro Poroshenko’s camp – a corresponding statement was published by Verkhovna Rada deputy Alexei Goncharenko.