Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is urging the European Union strongly to put his country on track to membership. In a video address on Friday to the Copenhagen Democracy Summit, Zelenskyy said the EU should act quickly to offer Ukraine the status of a candidate to join the 27-nation bloc.
He said that the “gray zone” Ukraine has been left in has encouraged Russian aggression. He urged the EU to show "that its words about the Ukrainian people being part of the European family aren't a hollow sound.”
Zelenskyy deplored that “there are still some political skeptics who doubt whether we should be allowed to move to join the EU.” In other developments, Denmark — Finland plans to send more defense equipment to Ukraine but isn't specifying what it is or when it will be delivered.
The government said Friday that President Sauli Niinistö agreed to its request to send more military aid. It said it wasn't giving more information in order “to ensure that the help arrives.”
The Nordic nation already has sent rifles and anti-tank weapons to Ukraine, among other things.
Finland, a European Union member that has a long border with Russia, sought NATO membership following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, has met with Pope Francis to discuss efforts to end the war in Ukraine and relieve the global food crisis it has exacerbated.
In a tweet after the 20-minute audience Friday, von der Leyen wrote: “We stand with those suffering from the destruction in Ukraine. This war must end, bringing peace back to Europe.”
Von der Leyen also met with the Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, and the foreign minister, Archbishop Paul Gallagher, who recently returned from Ukraine. The Vatican said their talks focused on the “common commitment to work to bring the war in Ukraine to an end, dedicating particular attention to the humanitarian aspects and the food consequences of the continuation of the conflict.”
In Geneva the U.N. Human rights office has voiced concern about the death sentences imposed by pro-Moscow rebels in Ukraine on three captured foreigners who were fighting on the Ukrainian side. A court in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic found two Britons and one Moroccan guilty of seeking the violent overthrow of power. The men were also convicted of mercenary activities and terrorism.
U.N. Rights office spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani noted Friday that, according to the Ukrainian military, all three were part of Ukraine's armed forces. She said if that is the case they “should not be considered as mercenaries”.