Day "D" for Zelensky

Day "D" for Zelensky

According to Index, it is about the fact that today in Brussels, a decision is being made on Ukraine's negotiations for EU membership, which is strongly opposed by one member of the Union - Hungary.

"We are the voice of common sense in Europe," Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said before the summit and added: "War, corruption, a large agricultural sector and bad treatment of the Hungarian minority disqualify Ukraine from joining the EU soon."

On the agenda of the two-day summit in Brussels is a symbolic invitation to Ukraine to start official negotiations, along with a promised amount of 54 billion euros from EU funds to supply the Ukrainian economy until 2024 and an additional 24 billion euros in military aid.

But Hungarian objections threaten to make a bad week even worse for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. His visit to Washington failed to secure $61 billion in US military funding. Republican representatives blocked them.

"If there is no positive news from Brussels, it will mean that Putin has vetoed this decision," warned the Ukrainian leader, directly accusing Budapest of standing in their way.

Although Orban repeated last night that Ukraine will not get what he wants from him, signs of a possible compromise began to appear last night. Thus, the European Commission announced that it will unblock around 10.2 billion euros of more than 30 billion EU funds for Hungary, which were frozen due to lags in the rule of law. That was, allegedly, Orbán's condition.

Zelensky desperately needs progress at the EU summit and tried to sound optimistic during a visit to Norway. In order to meet the needs of Budapest, the Ukrainian parliament last week passed a law guaranteeing Hungarians and other minorities the right to study in their own language.

A new Ukrainian anti-corruption law, which the EU requires, was also adopted, thus depriving Orban's government of some of its "munitions" against Kyiv.

However, no one in Brussels is suggesting that Ukraine is ready to join the EU tomorrow. The start of membership negotiations is a symbolic act of solidarity with that country, which defends itself against the Russians for almost two years now.