Patience required for Kyiv's EU hopes

Ukraine could quickly gain candidate status to join the European Union, but it may take years or decades to become a member, said French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday.

Earlier, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on Twitter that Ukraine had submitted the second part of the questionnaire to Brussels.

Kyiv submitted the first part of the questionnaire to Brussels on April 17. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said earlier that the European Commission was waiting to receive the second part of Ukraine's questionnaire on admission to the European Union. A decision on whether to give Kyiv candidate status will be made in June.

"We know that the EU accession process can take many years or even decades," Macron said.

In order to speed up Ukraine's participation in European affairs, he proposed creating a European Political Community that could accept it into its ranks.

Macron stressed the necessity to create a new political organization that would bring Ukraine closer to Europe, and together ensure political coordination and forms of solidarity in the security sphere, "but not to the extent that NATO does".

When Russia celebrated Victory Day on Monday to commemorate the Soviet defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II, Russian Ambassador to Poland Sergey Andreev was attacked with red paint by pro-Ukraine activists in Warsaw as he tried to lay a wreath at the cemetery for Soviet soldiers.

Images released by Russian news agencies showed Andreev and several other men with red paint splattered across their clothes and faces, surrounded by a chanting crowd, with some holding Ukrainian flags.

Serious situation

The Polish Foreign Ministry spokesman Lukasz Jasina said it recognized the seriousness of the situation.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said "the admirers of neo-Nazism have again shown their faces" as she reiterated the Kremlin's assertion that Russia is fighting neo-Nazis in Ukraine.

In Odessa, the major Black Sea port for exporting agricultural products, one person was killed and five people were injured when seven missiles hit a shopping center and a depot, stated Ukraine's armed forces on Facebook.

The attack happened when European Council President Charles Michel visited Odessa on Monday, urging afterward a global response to aid Ukraine.

A meeting between Michel and Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal in Odessa was interrupted by the missile attack, forcing the men into a bomb shelter, wrote Shmyhal in a tweet.

US President Joe Biden urged Congress to urgently pass his request for $33 billion in additional funding for assistance to Ukraine, according to a statement released by the White House.

Agencies contributed to this story.