OREANDA-NEWS German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has said that the European Union is giving "quick and pragmatic" support to Ukraine, but that the country's accession to the EU will take a long time. The German leader said this during a speech in the Bundestag, TASS reported, according to Gazeta.ru.

On 9 May, French President Emmanuel Macron said that the process of Ukraine's accession to the EU might take several years or decades. According to Scholz, the European Commission will make its assessment of Ukraine at the end of June.

On 10 May, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Ukraine had handed over the second completed part of the questionnaire for candidate status to the EU.

Earlier, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that Moscow doubted that Kiev's desire to join the EU was "harmless".