A Risky New Expansion Toward Russia for the EU
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in Kyiv on June 11.
Photographer: Sergei Supinsky/AFP/Getty Images
European Union leaders are poised to open a new era of eastern expansion today by offering candidate status to Ukraine and Moldova, with Georgia not far behind. It’s a historic moment that’s also fraught with risks.
Unlike the bloc’s earlier embrace of eastern Europe’s former Communist states, the new applicants all have territorial conflicts within their borders and Russian troops on their land.