Europe must send a message by fast-tracking Ukraine for EU membership

Europe, finally moving seriously toward Ukrainian membership in the European Union, should now accelerate the process dramatically and make one thing unmistakably clear to Moscow: Ukraine will become a member of the EU, period, and sooner rather than later.

After years of hesitation, all EU member states recently agreed to open the first detailed accession talks with Ukraine and Moldova, covering democracy, rule of law, and institutional standards.

The breakthrough signals that Europe is beginning to understand the geopolitical reality created by Russia’s invasion. Ukraine is no longer merely a buffer state, an aid recipient or a candidate country trapped in procedural limbo. Rather, it has become central to Europe’s future security, identity, and democratic purpose.

Europe deserves real credit for stepping up when many doubted it could. Since President Trump curtailed American military aid to Ukraine, European governments have accelerated the flow of money and weapons eastward while tightening sanctions on Russia. The continent has shown more resilience, seriousness, and strategic coherence than many expected. Russia’s staggering battlefield losses are now a genuine problem for Vladimir Putin.

Ukraine is the greatest European military success in a century or more.

For years, EU enlargement functioned primarily as a technocratic exercise. Expansion was about harmonizing standards, enforcing institutional reforms, reducing corruption, liberalizing economies, and forcing aspiring members to conform to Brussels’ democratic and regulatory norms. The process was slow because Europe believed it had the luxury of time — and didn’t much care.

But the European Union today is under real strain. Demographic decline, Brexit, political fragmentation, populism, economic anxiety, migration pressures, and a concerted attack by Trump and his cabal have shaken confidence in........

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