'Nobody entered EU overnight': Ukraine's hopes of quick membership dashed

Russian invasion of Ukraine has spurred EU capitals into rethinking what the bloc should stand for.

European Union leaders on Thursday condemned the "unspeakable suffering" Russia was inflicting on Ukraine but at a summit in France they refused Kyiv's appeal for rapid accession to the bloc and differed over the reach of sanctions against Moscow.

The Russian invasion - the biggest assault on a European state since World War Two - has upended Europe's security order and spurred EU capitals into rethinking what the bloc should stand for, its economic, defence and energy policies.

The EU was swift in imposing sweeping sanctions and offering political and humanitarian support to Ukraine, as well as some arms supplies, in the