Whatever the outcome regarding Ukraine's EU membership, Ukraine has a very long path to recover, European Commission Resident Ursula von der Leyen has said.

"This is an unusual path that Ukraine is going. Ukraine has whatever the outcome is a long period, an intensive period of reconstruction ahead of it because Russia brutally destroys infrastructure, livelihoods and cities. And therefore in this process we want to reach out to really work with you to reform, to build up, to reconstruct, and this will determine in a positive way the path towards the European Union," von der Leyen said at a press conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv on Friday.

She explained how the process usually takes place. "After an application [submitted by the country], the Council decides to task the Commission to form an opinion. This normally takes years. Here it took weeks. Then the Commission develops the so-called questionnaire, and in process back and forth this questionnaire is filled so that there's a clear picture of what the state of play in the country is and whether it fulfills, for example, the Copenhagen criteria," she said.

She said that Ukraine and EU have committed themselves "to work together on this very important step to draw and design the state of play of the country and many, many detailed questions… not only one question that is determining the outcome of this opinion. Many questions are to be answered."

"We want to work hand in hand to fill out this questionnaire to draw the picture, to paint the picture of this country and its path towards Europe. And then the opinion is basically a recommendation that comes from the Commission towards the Council. The Council then decides over the next steps," she said.