BRUSSELS — The European Union formally opened accession negotiations with Ukraine and Moldova on Sunday in a ceremony at EU headquarters, fulfilling a pledge made when both nations were granted candidate status in June 2022 and setting in motion a process that could reshape the continent's political architecture for decades.

EU Council President António Costa presided over the opening of the intergovernmental conference, flanked by Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal and Moldovan President Maia Sandu. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen hailed the moment as 'a declaration that Europe's future belongs to all who share its values,' noting that Ukraine had met the required legislative benchmarks despite fighting an active war against Russia.

The launch had been formally greenlit on Friday when EU member states unanimously approved the move, with European Parliament President Roberta Metsola confirming the parliamentary dimension of the agreement. Sunday's ceremony translates that political decision into binding procedural reality, opening the first negotiating cluster and establishing a bilateral screening timetable that both Kyiv and Chișinău must follow.

Russia condemned the development as 'provocative and destabilising,' with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov warning that NATO-adjacent enlargement rhetoric would complicate any future ceasefire diplomacy. Moscow has consistently framed Ukraine's EU aspirations as a Western geopolitical manoeuvre, though analysts note that EU membership and NATO membership remain legally and procedurally distinct tracks.

Diplomats cautioned that the talks will be lengthy and technically demanding — accession processes typically span a decade or more — and that Ukraine faces the additional complexity of conducting institutional reform during wartime. Moldova's path is seen as comparatively smoother given its smaller scale and the progress Sandu's government has made on judicial and anti-corruption benchmarks. Nevertheless, Sunday's ceremony was widely described by officials on both sides as the most concrete signal yet that EU enlargement remains a live and credible project.