The elections in the United States have placed Ukraine among the key issues in their geopolitical excesses. Thus, after the victory of Donald Trump, who always defended that he could end the war “in 24 hours”, without specifying how, many eyes were turned towards kyiv. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called the Republican leader to congratulate him and try to secure his support. “We hope that America will be stronger. This is the kind of America Europe needs. And America needs a strong Europe,” he declared before European leaders gathered within the European Political Community, in a speech in which he launched several barbs.
“Making concessions to Putin is unacceptable for Ukraine and suicide for Europe,” warned Zelensky, who however did not refer to Trump in this part of the speech, even if the allies’ great fear is that the new United States The president is forcing Ukraine to give in to Russia, as some of his former advisers have suggested. The Ukrainian spoken to at the time was “among those present” at the meeting of the European Political Community, which brings together EU countries and some of their eastern neighbors, as well as the United Kingdom .
“And what’s next?” Should Europe seek favors from Kim Jong-un in the hope that he too will leave it alone? No strong leader who contributed to building a united, strong and peaceful Europe would dream of doing this,” he criticized before warning: “And we must not have the illusion that showing our weakness or selling certain European positions or the prestige of a European country, you can buy peace. It just doesn’t work that way. Peace is only the reward of the strong. »
“We are not defending ourselves against Russian words, but against Russian attacks. That is why we need enough weapons, not support in negotiations,” Zelensky continued in a rather harsh speech.
In fact, at the home of Viktor Orbán, who hosted the meeting in Budapest because Hungary holds the rotating presidency of the EU Council this semester, it generally spoiled relations between European countries and Russia. “Hugs won’t help,” he said without mentioning anyone, not even Putin’s main ally in the community club. “Some of you have been hugging him for 20 years and things are only getting worse,” he added.
“During this war, we saw some European approaches fail. For example, the closer a country is to Russia, the more the concept of neutrality weakens,” added Zelensky, who launched another reproach at the allies, who are cooling his country’s entry into NATO: “The The rapid accession of Finland and Sweden to NATO has demonstrated how European and Alliance leaders truly understand guaranteed security, not with words, but through NATO. “Ukraine has taken note of this.”
Nor did he expressly mention the “peace mission” that Orbán undertook this summer, when he assumed the presidency of the Council of the EU and which took him to Moscow, kyiv, China and Washington , causing great anger among the rest of the partners. But he made it clear that the peace plan was his: “We are open to any constructive ideas to achieve a just peace for our country. But it is up to Ukraine to decide what should or should not be on the agenda to end this war.”
“The bill for this war should go to the Russians and not to Ukraine. So that Russia cannot continue to impose its false claims on everyone from the Baltic to the Balkans. “Any country, any leader who respects international law and sits at this table must understand that predators always demand more and more profits,” he said.
