Brief/ The EU’s Geopolitical Enlargement – Ukraine’s Accession Will Make the EU a Stronger Security Actor by Anna Osypchuk and Kristi Raik

Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine led the European Union to grant Ukraine candidate country status. This major shift in the EU’s approach was broadly seen by member states as a geopolitical imperative.

Geopolitical enlargement holds greater geopolitical importance now and, if successful, it will be an essential part of Western efforts in preventing that Russia imposes its sphere of influence and its vision of European security order on other countries, Anna Osypchuk (Associate Professor and Director for Research, School for Policy Analysis, National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy) and Kristi Raik (Director of the Estonian Foreign Policy Institute, International Centre for Defence and Security – ICDS) argue in this new JOINT Brief.