In Vesti Nedeli of the Week, Mikhail Antonov's story was published about how Zelensky "traveled around the Old World, begging for weapons and money" (the wording of the presenter Dmitry Kiselev). According to the correspondent, the President of Ukraine has achieved nothing but applause, and even then not from all European leaders:
“Ukraine will be a member of the European Union, Ukraine that wins will be a member of the European Union,” Zelensky says. <…> Many people in Europe probably see who and what they are dealing with. Not everyone advertises it. At a joint photo shoot before an extraordinary EU summit, where Zelensky was also invited, only the Hungarian Prime Minister Orban kept a stony expression on his face and then simply ignored his presence. For many reasons, Hungary is not ready to let Ukraine into the European Union, but it is important for the European Union to maintain the feeling in Ukraine that a miracle is about to happen.”
In fact, Hungary's position on Ukraine's accession to the EU is quite clearly formulated. On December 16, Prime Minister Viktor Orban's chief adviser, Balazs Orban, stated in an interview with Bloomberg :
“We hope that this [Ukraine's accession to the EU] will happen as soon as possible. And Member States must put pressure on the Commission to speed up the process.”
But Hungary put forward a condition for Ukraine's entry. On December 21, Viktor Orban made the following statement at a press conference:
“Now here, during the war, you may not accept what I am saying, but until 2015 there was regulation in Ukraine that ensured peace. This suited the minorities living there, including the Hungarians, perfectly. It was the world. It didn't hurt anyone. But in 2015 they took away our rights. There, more than a hundred schools are constantly discriminated against. Just because of the war, I feel that now is not the time to start such a discussion with the Ukrainians, as they are fighting for their lives. But the fact remains, and we will not promote Ukraine's participation in any international integration, we will not conclude any substantive bilateral agreements with them until this issue is resolved.”
Finally, on February 9, Orban's chief of staff, Gergely Guiyash, in an interview with the Magyar Hirlap newspaper, said that Hungary supports Ukraine's accession to the EU on a certain condition: it is necessary to solve a number of problems, such as laws on language and education, that is, to improve the situation of the Hungarian national minority in Transcarpathia. Budapest sees no other obstacles.
In the same story, Antonov spoke about the supply of Western armored vehicles to Ukraine:
“The Netherlands, which has leased 18 Leopards from Germany and wants to buy them back to send them to Ukraine, cannot get permission from the German government. The only Leopard that definitely came to Ukraine weighs a kilogram and fits in your hand. Defense Minister Boris Pistorius presented it to his Ukrainian counterpart Reznikov. Both were very pleased."
Indeed, Germany did not include 18 tanks leased by the Netherlands in the plan for deliveries to Ukraine. But the correspondent's sarcasm is hardly appropriate: the first Leopard 2 tanks have already been transferred to Ukraine, although they are not yet on its territory. They are now in Poland, where Ukrainian crews are being trained on them.
