Addressing EU leaders during a summit in Brussels, Zelensky said Ukraine’s resistance to Russia’s invasion was central to the continent’s future and that rapid integration into the European Union would provide the strongest long-term guarantee for European stability and security.

“The future of Europe — free, united and of course in peace — is being decided in our defense,” Zelensky said in excerpts of his remarks released on social media.

The Ukrainian leader acknowledged that support for an accelerated accession process was not unanimous among EU member states. Hungary, one of Kyiv’s most vocal critics within the bloc, opposed language endorsing a faster membership track and secured its removal from the European Council’s final statement.

“The most important such step — I know that not everyone loves this — could be a fast-track path for Ukraine to join the EU,” Zelensky said.

The European Council’s statement welcomed the launch of accession negotiations with Ukraine and said it looked forward to opening additional negotiating chapters under the bloc’s merit-based enlargement framework. However, it omitted any commitment to speeding up the process.

Hungarian Prime Minister Peter Magyar said on X that Budapest had succeeded in deleting references to accelerated accession from the summit conclusions.

“It wasn’t easy,” Magyar wrote.

The debate over Ukraine’s EU ambitions unfolded as Kyiv intensified its long-range military campaign against Russia. Earlier on Thursday, Ukrainian drones struck targets deep inside Russian territory, including an oil refinery in Moscow, in one of the latest attacks aimed at critical infrastructure.

Zelensky cited Ukraine’s ability to conduct long-range strikes as evidence of its military capabilities during meetings this week with U.S. President Donald Trump and other Group of Seven leaders in France.

In separate comments posted on Telegram, Zelensky reiterated Kyiv’s goal of ending the war before the end of 2026, while acknowledging the challenges of negotiating with Moscow.

“Of course, we want to end this war before winter — through diplomacy and by putting pressure on Russia. But we understand who we’re dealing with,” he said.

Referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin, Zelensky said Ukraine needed continued military and energy support should the conflict continue through another winter. He called for additional air-defense missiles, fuel supplies, energy equipment and a package of at least 300 missiles.

The Ukrainian president also urged European partners to strengthen financial support for Kyiv’s armed forces and called for the release of 6 billion euros from the European Peace Facility, an EU mechanism designed to support international security and defense efforts.

EU ambassadors agreed last week to advance membership negotiations with both Ukraine and Moldova, opening discussions on the first of six policy and legal clusters that candidate countries must complete before joining the bloc.

Ukraine’s latest drone attacks came amid escalating exchanges between Kyiv and Moscow. Ukrainian officials described the strike on Moscow’s refinery as retaliation for an attack that damaged a nearly 1,000-year-old monastery, an allegation Russia has denied.

Zelensky maintained that Ukraine remained open to direct talks with Putin but urged European governments to sustain sanctions pressure and financial assistance.

“Europe has to be engaged for us to have a strong position, to commit fully on sanctions without loopholes, on confiscation without exceptions and on funding Ukraine,” he said.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said after Thursday’s attacks that Moscow would continue carrying out what he described as massive coordinated strikes against Ukrainian targets on a regular basis.

Authorities in Russia’s Krasnodar region said no injuries were reported, but emergency crews were deployed to contain the blaze at the port, which has become a repeated target because of its major oil terminal and refinery infrastructure.

“In Tuapse, as a result of a drone attack by the Kyiv regime, a fire broke out on the territory of the seaport terminal,” the regional emergency headquarters said in a statement on Telegram.Officials said 128 firefighters and 41 emergency vehicles were sent to the site to tackle the fire.

The latest strike comes days after a major drone attack on Tuesday triggered a large blaze at the Tuapse refinery, forcing a production shutdown and causing oil leakage into nearby coastal waters. The refinery fire was extinguished on Thursday morning, according to local Governor Veniamin Kondratyev.

A state of emergency has remained in place in the area since Tuesday as authorities continue cleanup operations along the Black Sea coastline.Emergency workers said on Thursday they had identified five additional oil-contaminated sections of coast. In total, officials reported removing 12,600 cubic meters of polluted material from beaches and surrounding areas.

The environmental fallout has disrupted daily life in Tuapse, with local authorities advising residents not to drink tap water or use natural spring water as a precaution and urging people to limit time outdoors due to elevated benzene levels in the air.

Russia’s consumer safety watchdog Rospotrebnadzor recommended residents keep windows closed and avoid prolonged outdoor exposure. May holiday celebrations and large public events were canceled.The official reassurances triggered criticism online from residents who questioned statements that the situation remained safe.

“How about she comes to visit us and tries our fresh air?” one social media user wrote in response to comments by Rospotrebnadzor chief Anna Popova, who said the situation posed no health risks.

Tuapse, a major Black Sea export point for Russian oil products, has faced repeated attacks as Ukraine intensifies long-range drone operations targeting Russia’s energy infrastructure.Kyiv has increasingly focused strikes on refineries, ports and fuel depots deep inside Russian territory, seeking to disrupt one of Moscow’s main sources of war financing as global oil prices remain elevated during the Iran conflict.

Ukrainian drones also struck an oil refinery near the Russian city of Perm on Thursday, marking the second consecutive attack on oil facilities in the Ural region.Ukraine’s military separately said it had targeted a refinery in Russia’s southern Orenburg region, roughly 1,500 km from the Ukrainian border, underlining Kyiv’s growing capacity for long-range attacks.

Russia has not independently confirmed the extent of damage from those strikes.Ukraine says its campaign against Russian energy infrastructure is a response to sustained Russian attacks on Ukrainian power plants, fuel depots and heating systems, which have caused widespread blackouts and civilian hardship, particularly during winter.

Moscow and Kyiv have both escalated attacks on energy assets as the war enters another prolonged phase, turning fuel infrastructure into one of the central battlegrounds of the conflict.

Yuri Slyusar, governor of the Rostov Oblast, said falling drone debris triggered fires and prompted evacuations in affected areas.

“Emergency crews are working at the site of the incident, where the debris fell,” he said on Telegram, adding that damage had been recorded and residents moved to safety.

Taganrog Mayor Svetlana Kambulova said emergency services responded to 49 incidents across the city. Eight people were reported injured.

She said debris from intercepted drones damaged multiple residential buildings, social infrastructure and industrial facilities. Emergency crews remained deployed, while air defense units continued operations in the area.

Taganrog, a port city on the eastern edge of the Sea of Azov, lies close to the Ukrainian border and has periodically been affected by spillover from the conflict.

There was no immediate comment from Ukrainian authorities on the reported strike.