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A number of nations in the Western Balkans, located in southern and eastern Europe, have long been promised accession to the EU, but negotiations have yet to begin. Kosovo, for example, has been waiting for four years to have visa requirements lifted for travel to the European Union.

The risk for the EU is that it may be seen as giving preferential treatment to Kyiv — upsetting other parts of the continent and potentially pushing them closer to Russia.

“We have to remain vigilant and give the same priority to the Western Balkans as to Ukraine,” Austrian ministers Alexander Schallenberg and Karoline Edtstadler said in a letter late last month. “We want and need those countries firmly anchored in our camp.”

For Kosovo, it’s an issue of geopolitics.

“This is also an issue of EU credibility, and also the EU understanding that bringing the Western Balkans as a region, embracing it and bringing it to the table is also a strategic interest of the European Union itself, because as I said earlier, the more the EU takes its attention away, the more other malign actors will be using this space, mainly Russia,” Kosovo President Vjosa Osmani-Sadriu told CNBC Wednesday.

Her comments should be taken with a degree of caution, however, as Kosovo has a long history of conflict with Serbia, a staunch Russian ally. Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008, and is recognized by 110 countries, including the United States, but not by Serbia and Russia. It has yet to become a U.N. member state.