Olha Vitaliyivna Stefanishyna, the deputy prime minister of the European and Euro-Atlantic integration of Ukraine, is completely certain that all 27 European Union nations will support the idea of making Ukraine an official candidate for membership.

According to AP, Stefanishyna said on Wednesday that the EU nations could arrive at the decision on the first day of the upcoming summit, which is set to begin in Brussels, Belgium, on June 23.

She also stated that the nations that were initially doubtful about the membership, such as the Netherlands, Denmark, and Sweden, are now displaying full support. 

She further called the EU’s executive arm’s decision to support her country’s candidacy a “game-changer.”

Stefanishyna also revealed that Ukraine is planning to use the EU’s structural funds after getting the candidacy, in order to reconstruct and restore itself after the destruction caused by the Russian invasion. 

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“As a candidate country, we have access to the structural funds of the European Union. These are absolutely immeasurable compared to the funds we had before and will be entirely aimed at restoring and rebuilding Ukraine and building a sustainable competitive economy. Today, we are talking about hundreds of billions of euros, which will be available to us after receiving this status,” she said.

Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that his country does not have an issue with Ukraine’s decision to join the EU.

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“The EU is not a military organisation, military-political bloc, unlike us. Therefore, we always said that our stance is coherent, and understandable. We have nothing against it. It is a sovereign decision of any country to join or not to join economic unions, and the decision of those economic organisations to accept members or not,” he said.