On 17 December, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba praised a move by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz during the EU summit, which enabled accession talks for Kyiv, Deutsche Welle reports.
At the recent EU summit, the chancellor suggested that Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, known as Putin’s close ally, temporarily leave the room when other EU leaders voted to begin negotiations with Ukraine.
This allowed Orban to stick to his position without blocking Ukraine’s accession and approve talks with Ukraine and Moldova.
Orbán’s unusual “coffee break” saves Ukraine at EU summit. Will it work again?
Later, Orbán distanced himself from other EU leaders with a video message on Facebook:
“EU membership of Ukraine is a bad decision. Hungary does not want to participate in this bad decision, and therefore stayed away from the decision today.”
Many politicians have criticized the Hungarian approach to policy on the EU’s enlargement came after the numerous statements of the country’s officials and Orban himself that Hungary would not support any of the bloc’s proposals to begin EU membership talks with Ukraine.
For instance, former Lithuanian Foreign Minister Linas Linkevičius said Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban wants to turn the European Union into a market to ruin it.
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