"The negotiations may start in June since Ukraine will almost certainly be unable to win militarily. I expect it [Ukraine] to receive a great impulse on its way to the bloc. I believe that a decision will be made to urgently start talks with a possibility of emergency accession to the EU, since there is a competition for NATO leadership and the Americans are trying to establish their own bloc inside the EU," Vucic told Serbian broadcaster Pink.
Ukraine, Poland and the Baltic states will constitute a special pro-US bloc, even though the entire EU has always been Washington's close ally, the Serbian president added.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky signed an application for Ukraine's accession to the EU on February 28, 2022, four days after Russia launched its special military operation there. On June 23, the EU heads of state approved candidate status for Ukraine. To start accession talks, the country needs to fulfill a number of conditions and carry out wide-ranging reforms.
For decades, the European Union backed pro-Western forces in Ukraine, which resulted in a series of mass protests after each election.
In 2014, the rivalry between pro-European and pro-Russian parties escalated into violent clashes, resulting in the so-called "Euromaidan" coup in Kiev. It triggered independence referendums in Crimea, Donetsk, and Lughansk, which sought to reunite with Russia, while Kiev resorted to force and dispatched military against civilians, causing a devastating military confrontation.
Soon after, Ukraine’s new authorities amended the country’s constitution to list NATO and European Union membership as strategic goals.
However, despite years-long attempts to get into the EU, Kiev still has a long way to go to meet the bloc's standards with European politicians saying that Ukraine's accession is not on the cards.