By Janis Laizans

KYIV, Reuters – The European Commission Chief and EU’s Top Diplomat arrived in Kyiv to meet with President Volodymyr Zilenskiy and offer support for his EU membership bid in a capital slowly recovering from Russia’s pullback forces.

Ursula von der Leyen (President of European Commission) told reporters while she was traveling by train between Brussels and Kyiv that the “EU path” was the best option for Ukraine.

She stated that while it is not common for the EU council to accept applications for membership, Ukraine was accepted in just a few weeks. “I ask you to please move ahead as quickly as possible.” “Our aim is to present Ukraine’s application for membership to EU council this summer.”

Six weeks into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine she pledged support for Kyiv, saying that it would “emerge as a democratic nation” after the battle.

Josep Borrell the EU chief diplomat repeated the sentiment.

Ukraine is not an invading, dominating country. Borrell added that Ukraine still has a government which welcomes outsiders and can be reached from Kyiv.

He said that the EU would be taking the initiative to show Russia the EU’s measures to “isolate Russia” in the wake of its invasion and occupation of Ukraine. Moscow refers to this war as an “special operation” meant to “denazify its neighbor.

Moscow denies Zelenskiy is correct and claims that wars raging across Ukraine for six weeks are a direct threat to Ukraine’s survival as well as the security of Europe.

More than 30 people died and more than 100 were injured in the Russian rocket attack on an east Ukraine railway station. The strike was occurring as EU leaders were about to arrive.

Moscow’s invasion has seen over 4,000,000 people flee to other countries, killing or wounding thousands of others and reducing cities to rubble. However, Russian forces failed to seize any large cities.

Zelenskiy urged Brussels not to stop Russia from buying oil or gas, as well as asking for the EU’s full acceptance of Ukraine.

Borrell claimed that oil sanctions were “a huge elephant in the space”, with concerns that an attempt to reduce Russian crude might cause a rise in European prices. Borrell stated that a decision regarding exports will be made in Brussels on Monday.

Borrell and von der Leyen, the most recent Western leaders to visit Kyiv following the visits of the Prime Ministers of Slovenia, Poland and Czech Republic to see Zelenskiy.