With Ukraine war, Europe's geopolitical map is moving again

BRUSSELS (AP) — Even though Russia has lost influence and friends since the collapse of the Soviet empire in 1989, the nuclear superpower still holds sway over several of its neighbors in Europe and keeps others in an uneasy neutrality.

The Russian invasion of neighboring Ukraine and the humanitarian tragedy it provoked over the past two weeks have raised a Western outcry of heartfelt support and spawned calls for a fundamental rethink of how the geopolitical map of Europe should be redrawn in the future.

To anchor that in the reality of 2022 is far more difficult than may appear at first sight. Nudging Ukraine, Europe's second-biggest country, fully into the Western fold against the will of Moscow poses massive problems.

And European Union leaders will confront them together head on during a two-day summit at Versailles just outside Paris starting Thursday — forced into the assessment by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy when he amazingly signed an official request to become an EU member last week.

“The European Union is going to be much stronger with us. So that’s for sure,” Zelenskyy said in an emotional live transmission to the European Parliament on Tuesday.

Piling on the pressure, he said, "So do prove that you are with us. Do prove that you will not let us go. Do prove that you indeed are Europeans.”

Compounding the EU's problem, Moldova and Georgia, two smaller nations who also fear the expansive reach of Russia, followed tack within days and also asked for membership.

The violence of the Russian invasion also spooked historically neutral countries like Sweden and Finland, which now see a surge in support for joining NATO and in Helsinki's case unshackling itself from a Russian influence so heavy that it became a political moniker — “Finlandization.”

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