The EU leaders are looking to fast-track Ukraine’s membership.

Later today, the leaders of the European Union are set to meet in Brussels, where they are projected to formally accept Ukraine’s bid for EU candidacy. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy began efforts on behalf of his country to join the EU four months ago when Russia began its still-ongoing invasion. While the process to formalize an EU candidate usually takes multiple years, the EU leaders are looking to accelerate the process in order to provide better support against Russia’s attack.

“Ukraine is going through hell for a simple reason: its desire to join the EU,” tweeted European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen. “Our opinion acknowledges the immense progress that [Ukrainian] democracy has achieved since the Maidan protests of 2014.”

“This is like going into the light from the darkness,” Zelensky told The Guardian about the upcoming acceptance.

Ukrainian foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba added that formalizing their candidacy will “draw a line under decades of ambiguity and set it in stone: Ukraine is Europe, not part of the ‘Russian world.’”

“We need this clarity [on EU membership] to support the Ukrainian army, Ukrainian society, morally, psychologically, and to get the clear feeling and understanding of the direction of movement for Ukraine,” Ukrainian EU ambassador Vsevolod Chentsov said earlier this week, noting that the proceeds had moved at “lightning speed.”