BRUSSELS, February 1. /TASS/. European Union leaders will not make a pledge to speed up the process of Ukraine’s accession to the EU during the Ukraine-EU summit on February 3, a source in a European delegation to the summit has told TASS.

"EU countries will agree that Ukraine has made a long journey, achieving serious progress in reforms, but there will be no pledge of expedite membership," the source said.

According to the source, a number of eastern European nations favor speeding up Ukraine’s accession process.

"Some countries, primarily eastern European ones, insist that expedite membership should be pledged to Ukraine at such a difficult moment for the country. But not all countries share this point of view. In particular, those are large member states who think that no empty promises should be made to Kiev," he added.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Denis Shmygal said last week that the government expects to become an EU member in less than two years after talks on its accession began. Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky believes that negotiations on Ukraine’s accession to the EU should begin as early as this year.

On June 23, 2022, EU heads of states and governments made a decision to grant EU candidate status to Ukraine and Moldova. The timeframe for the beginning of accession talks have not been set yet. Brussels has pointed out that a lot of work remains to be done by the Kiev government, who must carry out important reforms. The EU also said that Ukraine can join the European community only after the conflict on its territory is over.