Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba warned that hesitation on Brussels’ part could have “devastating” consequences
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba © Getty Images / Spencer Platt
EU leaders should stop looking to Washington when making decisions regarding continued support for Kiev, insisted Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba in an interview with Politico on Tuesday.
This statement precedes an EU summit scheduled for Thursday and Friday, during which leaders will discuss the initiation of accession talks for Ukraine and the release of €50 billion in aid for Kiev. The EU’s deliberations align with a current deadlock in the US Congress over sending an additional $61 billion to Ukraine, with Republicans demanding stricter immigration controls on the US-Mexico border as a condition.
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Certain EU member states, including Hungary, have expressed reservations about sustaining support for Zelensky’s government. Prime Minister Viktor Orban asserts that the bloc should first reach a consensus on its Ukraine strategy before deciding on policies, security guarantees, Russia sanctions, and union expansion.
Kuleba emphasized the urgency of the situation, asserting that losing momentum and denying Kiev a fast track to membership would have
“devastating strategic consequences” for the EU.
According to Politico, the minister dismissed concerns of war fatigue and frustrations over Kiev’s stalemate on the battlefield and stressed that neither Ukraine nor the EU had any viable alternative to fighting.
He also suggested that allowing Russia to defeat Ukraine would set a precedent for attacking a European country next, despite Moscow’s repeated assurances that it has no plans to launch attacks against European nations.
While top US officials claim that Russian President Vladimir Putin is plotting to attack NATO unless Congress allocates additional funding to Ukraine, Russia’s ambassador to the US, Anatoly Antonov, dismisses these claims as “myth-making and a propagation of dangerous lies,” accusing Washington of adding fuel to the fire of the Ukrainian conflict and losing touch with reality.
Some US politicians, like Republican Senator Tommy Tuberville, express doubt about the reality of such a threat, considering it a mere selling point to justify sending more money, saying that he has “never believed that scenario” and that it was “a good selling point to send more money.”
