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| Zelensky returns to Kyiv empty-handed. How did the EU summit end? |
| 2023-02-11 |
| Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Evgenia Kondakova [REGNUM] Annotation The EU summit ended in Brussels. The event was originally scheduled for two days, but in the end one was enough. Participation in the summit of the Ukrainian president lasted only 3.5 hours. There were two issues on the agenda of Vladimir Zelensky: Ukraine's entry into the EU and the receipt of combat aircraft by the Ukrainian army. From the second trip outside the country since the beginning of the NWO, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky decided to squeeze out the maximum benefit - on the way to Brussels for the EU summit, he managed a few hours a day earlier, on February 8, to hold talks with British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in London, with the President France Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Paris (where, according to Politico sources at the Elysee Palace, he was invited spontaneously when they saw footage from the United Kingdom). Zelensky flew to the Belgian capital with one goal: to beg for as much as possible for his country, namely weapons and the speedy granting of membership in the European Union. "Ukraine will be a member of the EU," the head of state said, speaking in the European Parliament. Yes, and European officials echoed: "Ukraine is Europe." President of the European Council Charles Michel signed a joint photo with Zelensky: " Welcome home, welcome to the EU." However, everyone made it clear that before the acceptance of Ukraine into the ranks of the community is still very, very far away. Even the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, stressed: “Ukraine is advancing on the path to the EU at an impressive pace, but between now and this bright future, the road is still not easy." The integration into the European space of the country on whose territory hostilities are now taking place was discussed in detail less than a week ago, on February 3, in Kyiv at the Ukraine-EU summit. The Ukrainian side wants to speed up this process as much as possible, but not all members of the union agree with this: if representatives of Eastern Europe insist that at such a difficult moment it is necessary to promise accelerated membership to Ukraine, then large countries urge not to make empty promises. So, in the final document of the summit, they limited themselves to a vague wording about making a decision after Kiev had completed all the stages prescribed by Brussels. By analogy with the statement of the Bucharest NATO summit in 2008: we will accept you into the alliance sometime later. In addition, the admission of a new country to the EU is an issue that is accepted unanimously, and Hungary, through the mouth of the head of the administration of the Prime Minister of the Republic, Gergey Guyash, on the opening day of the summit, promised not to ratify Ukraine's membership in the EU until Kiev solves the problem of oppression of the Hungarian national minority in Transcarpathia. The dispute between the two countries on this issue has been going on for more than one year. So Zelensky did not strongly pedal the topic with the accelerated procedure for Ukraine's accession to the EU in Brussels. And at the moment, it is much more important for him to get heavy weapons for the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and ideally, fighters. It was not for nothing that the Ukrainian president first raised this topic in London - it was the UK that was the first country to announce its decision to provide tanks to Kiev, thereby provoking a domino effect, soon similar statements followed from other Western capitals, including even Berlin, which until the last refused to share its Leopard 2. Zelensky did not directly demand fighter jets from the Europeans from the rostrum of the European Parliament, but this call nevertheless sounded. In response, European Parliament President Roberta Metsola called on the EU countries to explore the possibility of supplying Ukraine with long-range systems and fighter jets as soon as possible. However, an EU official told Bloomberg: " European leaders have made it clear to Volodymyr Zelensky that they are ready to send more military aid to Ukraine, but so far no one has committed to providing fighter jets." And indeed it is. Immediately upon arrival in Brussels, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson did not rule out the supply of fighter jets to Ukraine in the future, but now this issue is not relevant for Stockholm. The heads of government of Belgium and Estonia announced that their countries do not have aircraft that could be provided to Ukraine. Scholz promised a day before the EU summit that Germany would not participate in the discussion of the supply of military aircraft, which Ukrainian officials are counting on so much. And even the head of the Polish government, Mateusz Morawiecki , said that Poland would not be in the forefront of states ready to transfer fighter jets to Kiev. Zelensky was not supported by the leaders of those countries that he visited before Brussels. British Defense Minister Ben Wallace said in an interview with the BBC Broadcasting Corporation that the kingdom will not transfer fighter jets to Ukraine in the near future, but will focus on supplying other equipment and training the Ukrainian military. Macron made a similar statement following the EU summit: “Deliveries of fighter jets are not a priority. This is not what the Ukrainian army needs now. Under no circumstances can the fighters be delivered in the coming weeks. In principle, it does not exclude anything, but now this is not the main issue. As the official representative of the French government Olivier Veran explained , Paris does not supply combat aircraft to Kiev, since this is a means of attack, not defense. Morawiecki, returning from the summit, told reporters that Warsaw had made a proposal to conduct joint purchases of ammunition for Ukraine, but, according to him, there was no positive reaction from some EU countries. Zelensky tried to convince European leaders of the need to increase the volume of military assistance to Ukraine in a narrow circle. According to the Hungarian newspaper Népszava, in Brussels he held a half-hour meeting with the presidents of Bulgaria and Cyprus, the Austrian chancellor, the prime ministers of Hungary, Greece, Slovenia, Croatia and began the conversation by listing the necessary weapons, but Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban immediately stated that they could not comply with this request. By the way, they were the only ones of all the leaders of the EU countries who did not applaud when Zelensky and Charles Michel approached them for a joint photo. The participation of the Ukrainian president in the summit lasted only 3.5 hours. In general, the event was originally scheduled for two days, but eventually reduced to one. “Despite the presence of Zelensky as a participant in the summit and sweet talk that Ukraine is part of Europe, Zelensky returns to Kyiv empty-handed. Ukraine is a candidate country, but the procedure cannot be expedited. What's worse for Zelenskiy is that he's not getting more weapons and he's definitely not getting planes ," said French economist Charles Gave, founder of TV Libertés . But at a press conference in Brussels, Zelensky said that he had no right to return home without results. But Ukrainians are no strangers to human rights violations. |
| Posted by:badanov |
| #1 Wonder if Zelensky understands that entry into the EU means loosing control of his graft streams? |
| Posted by: ed in texas 2023-02-11 11:59 |