A spat over farming bodes ill for Ukraine’s future European prospects

If the phraseEUEU wasn’t already taken, Ukraine and the could be said to enjoy a “no-limits friendship”. The bloc’s 27 countries, four of which border Ukraine, have provided money and weapons to their neighbour, taken in its refugees and trained its troops. Ukrainian flags in Brussels dangle from balconies and official buildings. To bolster morale while fighting endures, and help reconstruction once it ends, the club has raised the prospect of Ukraine soon joining its ranks. In many ways it already has. President Volodymyr Zelensky now routinely addresses summits of leaders, including once in person. More tangibly, after Russia launched its full-scale invasion last year Ukraine was given tariff-free access to the club’s single market, beyond trade deals already in place.