Todays a good day for Ukraine.
Within the last hour, the European Parliament has approved the candidate status of Ukraine and Moldova as members of the European Union. A whopping 529 votes in favour, 45 against & 14 abstentions.

Official EU Parliament statement reads…
With 529 votes to 45 and 14 abstentions, Parliament adopted on Thursday a resolution calling on the Heads of State or Government -who hold their summit today and tomorrow – to grant EU candidate status to Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova “without delay”. They should do the same with Georgia “once its government has delivered” on the priorities indicated by the European Commission.
Link to full statement.

Fingers crossed that EU member states vote the same way and hand Ukraine a welcome morale boost. Publicly, Putin will downplay the granting of candidate status, but privately he’ll be angered by the decision, one prompted by his own naivety of how the world would react to his invasion. He’ll be angered by the media attention this will bring to Ukraine, a country he’s desperately trying to silence from the airwaves.