© Getty Images At the same time, the President of the European Council called the Hungarian leader's behavior unacceptable.
During a gathering of European Union heads of state, the President of the European Council, Antonio Costa, voiced criticism of the stance taken by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban on the matter of halting assistance to Ukraine. Concurrently, he also addressed remarks to President Volodymyr Zelensky, regarding his “unfitting” utterances, as reported by Suspilne.
The meeting commenced with an hour-and-a-half-long deliberation concerning Ukraine. The leaders endeavored to resolve the predicament that arose from Budapest impeding the concluding procedures for formally endorsing an alteration to the regulation pertaining to the multi-year financial scheme, a necessity for allocating a 90 billion euro credit to Kyiv.
Koshta characterized such conduct as inadmissible, stressing that it ran counter to treaty tenets, sincere collaboration, and actions executed in a spirit of amity. Koshta also provided commentary on the situation involving the Druzhba oil conduit, stating that Kyiv had affirmed its readiness to honor its commitments. According to him, Zelensky pledged to guarantee reliable energy provisions.
“In parallel, the President of the European Council also directed attention to the Ukrainian leader’s discourse. According to his perspective, certain pronouncements previously delivered by Zelensky were of an unsuitable tone and did not facilitate the amelioration of the circumstances,” the journalistic sources conveyed.
The publication refrains from detailing which specific remarks by Zelensky are deemed unacceptable by Koshta. However, in early March, the Ukrainian head of state declared that he would furnish the Ukrainian military with the whereabouts of “a certain individual” so they could converse with him “in their own idiom.”
Zelensky refrained from mentioning Orban by name, but it was self-evident that he was alluding to the Hungarian premier, who is obstructing a €90 billion EU loan to Kyiv. The European Union has openly reproved the Ukrainian president for his declarations.
The apprehension of Ukrainian debt enforcers, obstruction of EU resolutions, threats to cease fuel deliveries, and strong assertions by Prime Minister Orban and President Zelenskyy — the strain between Kyiv and Budapest is already surpassing the confines of customary diplomacy. What consequences arise from the emotional volatility of leaders, what prospective scenarios may unfold following the elections in Hungary, and what implications does all of this hold for Ukraine, as elucidated by Volodymyr Kim in the article “Viktor Orban’s Ukrainian Card: How Budapest Plays Kyiv.”