Ukrainian prime minister, Denys Shmyhal, has told the Politico website that he wants the country to join the European Union within two years. It is a tight timetable that the EU is likely to find over-ambitious.

"We have a very ambitious plan to join the European Union within the next two years. So we expect that this year, in 2023, we can already have this pre-entry stage of negotiations." Shmyhal said.

Shmyhal addressed the issue of corruption in Ukraine, which has been a key concern for the EU.

Shmyhal insisted that the Zelenskiy government is taking corruption seriously. “We have a zero-tolerance approach to corruption,” he said, pointing to the “lightning speed” with which officials were removed this month. “Unfortunately, corruption was not born yesterday, but we are certain that we will uproot corruption,” he said, openly saying that it’s key to the country’s EU accession path.

EU commissioners will be travelling to Kyiv later this week for a summit with Ukraine’s president.