Ukraine’s bid for fast-track membership of EU likely to end in disappointment

In his latest video address to the nation on Wednesday morning, Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Russia was seeking to erase Ukraine, its history and people as he reiterated his appeal for the EU to fast-track its membership application: “This is no time to be neutral.”

There is an urgency to the Ukrainian president’s calls and, naturally, as images of the carnage in Ukraine’s cities beam back to Brussels, there is significant sympathy with his cause.

An emotive speech to the European parliament on Tuesday, in which Zelenskiy had beseeched the union to “prove...