Opening accession negotiations that would lead to admitting Ukraine to the European Union bloc is a grave mistake, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban warned on Wednesday.
In response, Ukraine’s president Volodomyr Zelensky reacted to Orban’s position, saying “[He] has no reason to block Ukrainian membership in the European Union.”
“I asked him to tell me one reason why. Not three, not five, not 10. Tell me one reason,” Zelensky said of his talks with Orban.
“I’m waiting for [an] answer,” he told reporters in Oslo where he has been meeting with five Nordic leaders.
The European Union leaders struggled at the start of a two-day summit on Thursday to keep their two most elementary promises to Ukraine at war intact — to give it the money and wherewithal to stave off the Russian invasion and maintain its hope that one day it will be able to join the wealthy bloc.
Hungarian Prime minister, Viktor Orbán, came into the summit vowing to both block the plans by his 26 fellow leaders to officially declare that membership negotiations with Ukraine can start, and more pressingly, deny Kyiv €50bn ($54bn, £43bn) in financial aid that the country dearly needs to stay afloat.
French President Emmanuel Macron has said that the European Union must offer “full and enduring support to Ukraine”.
Macron told reporters both countries were “determined to support Ukraine for as long as it takes, in military, economic, humanitarian and diplomatic terms”, adding that “our collective security is at stake”.
Macron made the call, on the eve of a crucial summit in Brussels, for the EU to be “ready to provide full and lasting support for Ukraine”.
