Ukraine’s military said Monday it shot down all five drones Russia used in attempted attacks overnight.
The Ukrainian air force said the drones were downed in four different parts of the country, including the Mykolaiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Vinnytsia and Khmelnytskyi regions.
There were no reports of casualties or damage on the ground from falling debris.
Ukraine and the European Commission will soon evaluate progress Kyiv has made in aligning its legislation with that of the European Union and will create a framework for EU accession talks expected next year, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address Sunday.
"In the coming days, with the European Commission, we will officially launch the process of assessing Ukrainian legislation for compliance with EU legislation — the screening process," Zelenskyy said.
The European Commission reported last month that Ukraine had fulfilled four of seven recommendations for EU accession negotiations, including hiring anti-corruption officials, preparing the judiciary for a major overhaul and aligning media legislation with EU standards.
The commission said it would assess Ukraine’s progress again in March, part of a long and complicated pathway to membership that the EU's ambassador to Ukraine, Katarina Mathernova, has described as grueling.
Last week, EU leaders agreed to open membership talks with Ukraine in a surprise decision as the bloc’s 27 member states held a two-day summit. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban abstained from voting, saying he did not want to take part in what he called a “bad decision.” He had said Ukraine had not met three conditions.
Orban had pledged for weeks to block moving forward with the negotiations.
The other 26 members voted in favor of the accession negotiations after Orban agreed to leave the room. Russia praised Hungary, which is considered Moscow’s closest ally in the EU, for objecting to the talks.
Hungary later blocked a $54 billion EU aid package for Ukraine in Kyiv’s defensive war against Russia.
The EU is expected to discuss the issue in an emergency session early next year.
Some information is from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
