EU, Ukraine together on Europe Day, but Kyiv remains outside

By RAF CASERT
Associated Press

BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union marks its annual Europe Day celebration of peace and unity with Ukraine anxiously looking in from the wings. Ukraine wants to badly join the 27-nation bloc to anchor its future in the Western world. Next month, it will be one year already since the EU nations granted Ukraine candidate status, lavished the nation with praise, boosted it with aid and military support and sanctioned Kyiv’s enemy Russia with ever more sanctions. Yet, frustration on the Ukraine side is evident, because the beginning of membership negotiations is still out of sight.