Rome, 27 April 2023 (dpa/MIA) - Ukraine is planning to fulfil all conditions required for starting EU accession negotiations by the end of this year, the country's Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said on Thursday.

"Ukraine has implemented all seven of the European Commission's recommendations that we received when we obtained candidate status," the Ukrainian premier told a press conference in Rome.

Shmyhal is attending a conference for Ukraine reconstruction hosted by Italy. He also met Pope Francis at the Vatican on Thursday.

Ukraine will implement all reforms required for EU accession despite the Russian invasion of the country, Shmyhal said. Among other things, he pointed to anti-corruption measures Kiev had already put in place "which are fully functioning, as we have agreed with our European partners."

As such, 27,000 normative acts are currently being aligned with EU standards. Shmyhal went on to say that he hoped that the EU Commission would publish an interim report on the implementation of the seven recommendations soon, and that this report will "open the doors for us" to concrete accession negotiations.

Earlier, the Ukrainian premier was received by Pope Francis in the Vatican for a half-hour private audience. Shmyhal asked the head of the Catholic Church to work to ensure that many children - some of them orphans - who had been deported from Ukraine to Russia could return to their homeland.

In addition, Shmyhal once again invited the pontiff to visit Ukraine. Francis has been invited several times by politicians in Kiev for a personal visit since Russia launched a full-scale invasion of the neighbouring country in February last year. So far, however, the 86-year-old has not travelled to Ukraine, in part for health reasons.