Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy thanked Cyprus for the efforts it made during its six-month term as the holder of the Council of the European Union’s rotating presidency to bring about the start of negotiations for Ukraine to accede to the bloc, as he thanked his Cypriot counterpart Nikos Christodoulides for his well-wishes on Ukraine’s independence day.

“It was during the Cyprus presidency of the Council of the European Union that Ukraine finally opened the first negotiating cluster with the EU. Now it is important to open all the remaining ones,” he wrote in a post on social media.

He added that “we know that we can count on Cyprus’ continued support for our EU integration”, and that “we also appreciate other forms of support and hope to increase our cooperation in other areas as well”.

Ukraine, alongside Moldova, opened negotiations to acceded to the EU in June, during Cyprus’ six-month term, with Cyprus’ then European affairs deputy minister Marilena Raouna saying at the time that the Cypriot government had “worked intensively since day one of its presidency” to achieve this.

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Earlier, she had said that Cyprus had “worked in a results-driven manner, with perseverance, diligently and intensively” to bring about the commencement of negotiations.

The opening of the first cluster, she said, “guides Ukraine and Moldova from political aspiration to concrete commitment and implementation of the process that will bring them closer to the united European family”.

Meanwhile, European Council President Antonio Costa had said that “we are celebrating a historic milestone on Ukraine’s path towards the European Union”.

He later quipped on the matter of the enlargement of the EU that “the main problem … is that we would need to wait for another 17 years for another Cypriot presidency”, with enlargement having been one of Cyprus’ priorities during its six-month term.

Both Ukraine and Moldova opened ‘cluster one’ of the six thematic clusters of accession negotiations, which focuses on “fundamentals”.

Negotiations are divided into six thematic clusters –  “fundamentals”, “internal market”, “competitiveness and inclusive growth”, “green agenda and sustainable connectivity”, “resources, agriculture, and cohesion”, and “external relations”.

Per EU law, ‘fundamentals’ is the last negotiating cluster to be closed, despite being the first to be opened. 

More recently, Christodoulides on Monday had stressed his support for “the independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity of Ukraine, within its internationally recognised borders” as he partook in a videoconference of the ‘Coalition of the willing’ – a group of over 30 countries which have pledged support for Ukraine in its war with Russia.

“Peace can only be achieved on the basis of the United Nations charter, without any external imposition. At the same time, Cyprus supports the coordinated European efforts to adequately prepare Ukraine for the coming winter,” he added.