US President Joe Biden thinks Ukraine is “very likely” to become a member of the European Union, he told reporters on Monday. He also said a visit to Kiev is still on the table, but probably not during his upcoming trip to Europe.

Biden spoke to a press gaggle in Rehoboth, Delaware, where he’s vacationing ahead of the NATO summit in Madrid, scheduled to start on June 29. The 79-year-old US leader fell off his bicycle on Saturday, but the White House later said he was unharmed.

Ukraine has yet to receive candidate status, the first step in a process of joining the block that can take decades. Paris and Berlin have come out in favor of “immediately” granting Kiev that status, after the visit of French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to Kiev last week. Italy and Romania also support the move.

This appears to be a change from the end of May, when Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi said Rome was the only major EU capital to back Kiev’s candidacy. Both Draghi and Scholz have expressed frustration with the EU requirement for unanimous decision-making, however, and cited Ukraine as an example of why it needs to be abolished. 

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https://www.rt.com/news/557510-biden-ukraine-eu-candidacy/

A FASCIST COUNTRY:

Ukraine’s Opposition Platform – For Life (OPPL) party was officially banned by a Ukrainian court on Monday. The Ministry of Justice announced on Facebook that all of its assets, property, and funds are to be transferred to the state.

The ruling to ban the party was carried out by the Eighth Administrative Court of Appeals in the western city of Lviv, following a request from the Ministry of Justice. The OPPL had all of its operations suspended by the authorities in Kiev in March after the launch of Moscow’s military operation, and the party and its leaders were accused of having ties to Russia and being “anti-Ukrainian.”

In its Facebook post, the ministry noted that Ukrainian courts have so far banned 11 so-called “pro-Russian” parties suspected of acting to “undermine the sovereignty” of the country.

Before its operations were suspended, the OPPL was Ukraine’s largest opposition group and second-largest party in the country. In 2019, it won 13% of the vote in a parliamentary election, and in 2021, polls showed that it surpassed President Volodymyr Zelensky’s ‘Servant of the People’ as the most popular party.

Since 2018, it was led by Viktor Medvedchuk, a businessman who called for better relations with Russia and saw Kiev’s western turn as detrimental to national interests. In May 2021, Medvedchuk was placed under house arrest after being accused of treason amid Zelensky’s crackdown on dissent.

Medvedchuk had repeatedly denied accusations against him as “politically motivated,” and insisted he was never “pro-Russian,” but merely wanted what was best for the Ukrainian people.

On April 12, the OPPL leader was captured by the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) as he allegedly tried to flee the country. The arrest was made public after Zelensky published a photo of the man in handcuffs. The politician has since been held in custody by the SBU at an unknown location.

Medvedchuk’s wife, Oksana Marchenko, has been pleading with world leaders to organize her husband’s release or exchange and has accused the SBU of beating and torturing him.

Last week, Ukrainian courts banned two more political movements – the Left Opposition and the Party of Shariy – both of which were previously featured on the list of 11 political factions suspended by Ukraine’s Security Council.

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https://www.rt.com/news/557500-ukraine-bans-opposition-platform-for-life-party/

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