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Ukraine uses its EU candidate status to continue hostilities - LPR diplomat

According to Rodion Miroshnik, the decision to grant the candidate status to Ukraine failed to bring Kiev any closer to obtaining real membership

MOSCOW, June 24. /TASS/. Ukraine will use its EU candidate status to recruit more people for its military campaign, the Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR) Ambassador to Russia Rodion Miroshnik has told TASS.

"They are going to feed the Ukrainian people with claims of soonest admission to the EU. They will fuel this hysteria for a few months, allowing the Ukrainian government to deceive its people and fan the hostilities by recruiting fresh cannon fodder," he said.

According to the diplomat, the decision to grant the candidate status to Ukraine failed to bring Kiev any closer to obtaining real membership.

"It was a purely symbolic act. And all EU mebers <…> agreed that it was nothing but a symbol, and Ukraine should be vested with it in support of its ‘righteous struggle.’ Meanwhile, EU members will prepare a list of their demands to Ukraine. How do you think, what kind of demands would be brought forward by Hungary, Romania, Poland? Ukraine has an enormous amount of problems in its relations with the neighboring countries, and a vast part of them cannot be solved without damage to its sovereignty," he said.

The diplomat added that Ukraine will have to negotiate with each member of the EU separately, and satisfy all their demands.

"For some nations, the process took 20-30 years. I don’t believe that any organization would like to see Ukraine as its member in the current situation, given its shattered economy that needs more than $1 trillion to be fixed," he said.

The European Parliament adopted on Thursday a resolution in support of EU candidate status for Ukraine and Moldova. Like all European Parliament resolutions, it is of advisory nature. The decision on granting EU candidate status to Ukraine and Moldova will be taken at an EU summit later in the day. After the summit's decision, it must be formally approved by the European Parliament.