ANKARA 

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Thursday said granting Ukraine EU candidacy could strengthen freedom in Europe.

He made the remarks while addressing a joint news conference in Kyiv with French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi and Romanian President Klaus Iohannis.

The four European leaders traveled to the Ukrainian capital in an historic visit to meet Zelenskyy, and announced their support for granting Ukraine “immediate EU candidate status.”

"Russia wants to show that the European Union is allegedly incapable of being effective and that European values cannot protect freedom. We can, and therefore, must break this scenario jointly and prove that Europe will continue to be free, democratic and united," Zelenskyy said.

Ukraine is ready to carry out the necessary work to gain full membership in the EU, he added.

Only four days after Russia launched a war on Ukraine on Feb. 24, Zelenskyy officially signed his country's request to join the EU. But key European nations have warned that membership could take years or even decades.

“All four of us support the immediate granting of EU candidate status for Ukraine,” Macron said, and pledged to continue sending weapons to help Ukraine’s war effort.

“We came to Kyiv today with a clear message: Ukraine belongs to the European family. Germany wants a positive decision in favor of Ukraine as a EU candidate country,” said Scholz.

Draghi said "the most important message of our visit is that Italy wants Ukraine in the EU, it wants it to have the status of candidate and it will keep this position in the upcoming European Council.”

Zelenskyy welcomed the pledges from the visiting leaders, adding that “we expect new supplies, especially heavy weapons, modern rocket artillery, missile defense systems and more.”

He added: “Each batch of such supplies means saved Ukrainians. And every day of delay or postponed decisions is an opportunity for the Russian military to kill Ukrainians and destroy our cities. There is a direct dependence: the more powerful weapons we get, the sooner we can liberate our people, our land.”

Before heading to the Ukrainian capital, the leaders visited the nearby town of Irpin, which is said to be of the main hotspots of fighting with Russian troops before they pulled back.

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