The European Union (EU) accepted Ukraine’s candidacy to join the bloc on Thursday; This is a clear gesture of support for the country that has been resisting the Russian invasion of the eastern region for four months.

At the 27 EU countries’ summit in Brussels, it was also agreed to grant candidate status to Moldova, another former Soviet republic whose territory is partly controlled by pro-Russian separatists.

“This is a unique and historic moment in Ukraine-EU relations,” said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. “The future of Ukraine is in the EU.”

French President Emmanuel Macron, who holds the EU presidency every two years, said the decision sends a “very strong signal” to Russian authorities.

Ukrainians are “fighting to defend our values, sovereignty and territorial integrity, and we owe it to Moldova too, given the political instability this country is going through,” he added.

The French president therefore referred to the tensions between Moldovan authorities and the pro-Russian separatist Transnistria region that have escalated in recent weeks.

“We are starting our way towards the EU, which will bring prosperity to Moldovans, offer more opportunities and guarantee the restoration of order in the country,” Moldovan President Maia Sandu said on Facebook.

Ukraine and Moldova submitted their candidacy for the first, shortly after the start of the Russian occupation. The pace of admission contrasts with the long timeframes other countries have to wait, but the actual accession process can take years.

– ‘Useless’ resistance – On the war front, Russia continues its offensive against the twin cities of Severodonetsk and Lysychansk in the Luhansk region.

This region, together with Donetsk, forms the Donbass basin, which since 2014 has been partially controlled by pro-Russian separatists.

The governor of Luhansk, Serhiy Haiday, said the Russians “repeated attacks to contain” the Ukrainian troops and captured the settlements of Loskutivka and Rai-Oleksandrivkam, a few kilometers from Lysychansk.

“There is no safe place, no city in the Donetsk region,” Donetsk Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko told AFP.

According to Kyrylenko, the Ukrainian command is “doing everything possible” to prevent the “encirclement” of Ukrainian troops in Severodonetsk and Lysychansk, which constitute the last focus of resistance in the region.

“The main task is to stop the advance of the enemy. [as cidades de] Sloviansk and Kramatorsk”, pointed further west.

The United States announced that a new military aid package worth $450 million was sent to Ukraine.

“This package includes weapons and equipment, including new high-mobility artillery rocket systems,” said White House spokesman John Kirby.

But a representative of pro-Russian separatists described the Ukrainian resistance in Lysychansk and Severodonetsk as “useless”.

“I think that at the pace our soldiers are going, very soon the whole territory of the Lugansk People’s Republic [Luhansk em russo] will be released,” Lieutenant Colonel Andrey Marochko told AFP via video call.

Bombings continued in other parts of the country, such as the northeastern region of Kharkiv, where 15 people died on Tuesday. Russia announced the destruction of 49 fuel depots and three repair shops for armored vehicles in Mykolaiv (south).

On Wednesday, two grain silos were hit by Russian shelling in the same area, according to their operators.

The ports of Mykolaiv and Odessa have been blocked since the beginning of the conflict, which paralyzed the transport of grain by sea. Russia’s exports are also affected by sanctions from Western countries.

In this sense, many countries think that their food security is under threat because they depend on Ukrainian grain and Russian fertilizers.

British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said the crisis “must be resolved within a month or the consequences could be devastating”.

– Putin asked BRICS for cooperation – Russian President Vladimir Putin asked for more cooperation from the emerging group of BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) to confront the “selfish actions” of Western countries.

Putin condemned attempts by Western countries to “use financial mechanisms to hold the whole world accountable for their macroeconomic policy mistakes”.

According to Putin, the BRICS countries can count on the support of “several countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America trying to pursue an independent policy”.

In response, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba urged African countries to “stand by Ukraine” and, according to him, “not buy the stolen Ukrainian grain” by Russian forces.

The European summit in Brussels this Thursday will be followed by another of the G7, which brings together the seven most industrialized economies in the world, and one-third of NATO, which will be attended by US President Joe Biden. These three meetings will focus on discussions on how to help Ukraine financially.