• “The first thing is to finally remove this grey zone,” Volodymyr Zelensky said.
• The 27 are split on whether Ukraine should join the alliance.
• EU leaders will decide. to grant Ukraine official candidate status at summit.

Ukraine’s president appealed on Friday not to leave his country in a “grey zone” with its EU membership bid, ahead of a summit to decide on its candidacy.

“The first thing is to finally remove this grey zone,” Volodymyr Zelensky said, addressing the 2022 Copenhagen Democracy Summit by video-link.

“In the coming weeks, the European Union could take a historic step that will prove that the words on the membership of the Ukrainian people in the European family are not in vain,” he added.

The European Commission is expected to give its opinion on the issue in the coming days, before EU leaders decide whether to grant Ukraine official candidate status at a European Council summit on June 23-24.

Read more: Ukraine: a court of Russian proxy convicted two Britons and one Moroccan to death

Zelensky said he wondered why some member states were still hesitant about allowing Ukraine to join and cutting ties with Russia.

“Why, if the polls show that 71 percent of Europeans consider Ukraine as part of the European family, are there still political sceptics who hesitate to allow us to join the European Union?” he asked.

“The European system could lose if words are not accompanied by deeds,” Zelensky said.

The 27 are split on whether Ukraine should join the alliance. While many countries, primarily in Eastern Europe, support Ukraine’s accession, others, including the Netherlands and Denmark, are concerned that Ukraine is not ready.

If Ukraine is granted “candidate status,” it will begin a potentially decades-long process of negotiations and reforms before officially joining the European Union.

Read more: Ukraine claims that Russian positions in Kherson were attacked