Kyiv, Chisinau and the EU path: early April 2026
A look back at three developments from the first days of April 2026: a legislative alignment plan, Moldova's CIS exit and an offer of new peace talks.
What did the opening week of April 2026 show about the direction of Ukraine and its neighbour Moldova? Looking back at 7 April 2026, three recent developments set the context.
On 1 April 2026, Ukraine's Cabinet of Ministers approved the National Programme for adapting Ukrainian legislation to European Union law, the EU acquis. The programme contains about 1,850 tasks, which involve implementing more than 1,600 acts of EU law.
On 2 April 2026, Moldova's parliament approved the country's withdrawal from the Commonwealth of Independent States. The government argued that the organisation's core values and principles, among them territorial integrity and the inviolability of borders, were no longer respected. It pointed to Russia's actions in the region, including the war against Ukraine and an illegal military presence on Moldovan territory. The move was reported alongside Moldova's course towards EU accession.
On 4 April 2026, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine was ready to hold the next round of peace talks with Russia and the United States. Those talks belong to a series of negotiations that began after Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022. In the positions as later summarised, Kyiv has sought a ceasefire, a full withdrawal of Russian troops, the return of prisoners and abducted children, and security guarantees. Moscow has demanded recognition of occupied land as Russian, a guarantee that Ukraine never joins NATO, limits on Ukraine's military and the lifting of sanctions.
Taken together, these reports from 1 to 4 April 2026 show a Ukrainian government working on detailed legal alignment with the EU, a neighbouring state formally leaving a Russia-linked bloc, and Ukraine's president signalling openness to further diplomacy.
