Ukraine, Poland ready to sign agreement on joint border and customs control - Zelensky

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said this at a parliament meeting attended by Polish President Andrzej Duda. The text of his speech was published by Deputy Head of the Ukrainian President's Office Andrii Sybiha on Facebook, Ukrinform reports.

"We have agreed to implement this in the near future in a respective bilateral agreement. First [the agreement] on joint border and customs control, and later [the agreement] on a single conditional border - when Ukraine becomes a member of the European Union," Zelensky said.

He expressed confidence that all the necessary decisions will be made first for Ukraine's candidate status and then for full membership, including thanks to Poland's many years of protection of Ukrainian interests on the European continent.

"And I am grateful for your willingness, Andrzej, to pay a visit to European capitals together with Slovakia's President Zuzana Caputova in order to lobby for Ukraine's membership in the European Union in "sceptical" countries. "In fact, they are not skeptics, but future optimists. That is how I see our common task in this area," Zelensky said.

He also thanked the Polish Sejm for the recently passed law on assistance to Ukrainian citizens who left for Poland due to Russian aggression.

"This is an unprecedented decision, according to which our citizens who were forced to move to Poland due to Russian aggression will receive almost the same rights and opportunities as Polish citizens. This is legal residence, employment, education, medical care and social security. This is a big step and a gesture of a great soul, which only a great friend of Ukraine is capable of," Zelensky said.

Duda, speaking in the Verkhovna Rada on Sunday, May 22, said that it was time to sign a new agreement on good-neighborly relations between Ukraine and Poland.