Granting Ukraine candidate status is an acknowledgment that it belongs to the European family and an acknowledgment of all Ukrainian sacrifices.

"Not white but clear yellow-blue smoke from Brussels: Ukraine is officially an EU candidate country! It is one of the most geopolitically loaded days of my life, as important as 1991 and 2004," Ambassador of the European Union to Ukraine, Head of the EU Delegation to Ukraine, Matti Maasikas, shared on Twitter.

Not white but clear yellow-blue smoke from Brussels: Ukraine is officially an EU candidate country! It is one of the most geopolitically loaded days of my life, as important as 1991 and 2004. 🇺🇦🇪🇺 pic.twitter.com/uR6ZMa93qo

— Matti Maasikas (@MattiMaasikas) June 23, 2022

"This is an acknowledgment that Ukraine belongs to the European family. This is an acknowledgment of all these sacrifices that Ukrainians have been doing since Maidan and are now dying on the battlefield, resisting unjustified, unprovoked Russian aggression. Now your European path is clear - work will start tomorrow, with all EU reforms. But today we are celebrating," Maasikas said.

As previously reported, the leaders of the European Union at the Brussels summit on June 23 approved a decision to grant Ukraine and Moldova candidate status.

The decision was approved based on the recommendation of the European Commission on June 17.

The European Commission suggested the EU had a right to deprive the status in case Ukraine doesn't meet the requirements.

The EU has not set any deadline for Ukraine to prove its ability to carry out the reforms. The proposal stipulates that the European Commission will conduct the first assessment at the end of 2022.

Find out more in the article Ukraine Be Deprived of EU Candidacy without Reforms: Details of the Commission Opinion.