Ms Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze:

It would be extremely difficult to mitigate the negative effect of Ukraine not receiving candidate status if such a decision is made in June. It is about a ray of hope for the Ukrainian people.

It is also part of the understanding that when we get to the point where the real peace negotiations take place with Russia, we will be not only by our desire psychologically but also with some kind of promise of ability for us to get to the union we will be embedded in the EU. We might think of whether the Ukrainian authorities have been right in raising expectations internally at home, at least insisting on this publicly and so on. We do not see that happening for sure.

It is not only a political decision. Yes, we are talking about a political decision, but we have also delivered responses to the questionnaires provided from the European Commission. Hopefully, the Commission will be ready with its assessment of those answers soon. I hope that the basics of the Copenhagen criteria will be met by Ukraine in many areas. We are not talking exclusively because we are fighting the war and dying for our European choice but this is also based on the fact that Ukraine has delivered upon a lot of things already. The combination of these two things is drastically important to take this perhaps brave step that would envisage the possibility of further engagement for the EU.

Regarding the ICRC and UN agencies, I said that for the first month and a half after invasion, UN agencies were almost not present there. Now they are, but the scope of their presence and the scope of their performance from my perspective is not corresponding to the level of financing they are receiving and to the level of trust that many in society are putting in them by donating their money specifically to the UN agencies as well. I understand that the ICRC needs to be impartial and neutral. It needs to have the open corridors for conversation and dialogue with both sides to any conflict anywhere. However, so far we also need to understand that its opening an office in Rostov did not really lead to its ability to visit prisoners of war in Russian territory.

It has been the case throughout the war - for eight years already - that we have always granted access to those who have been legally detained on our territory who have come to kill us, but the ICRC never really had access to people detained in the occupied territories in eastern Ukraine or Crimea or on the territory of the Russian Federation. That is why there is so much dissatisfaction that the organisation is doing so much by working with Russian authorities but we do not see the protection and even the basic rights of prisoners of war being protected by the ICRC on Russian territory.