Putin’s threat to the EU: Kremlin says Ukraine or Moldova joining the bloc will ‘destabilise’ Europe in thinly-veiled warning
- EU leaders agreed to start entry talks with Ukraine at a summit yesterday
Russia said on Friday that the European Union’s decision to open membership talks with Ukraine and Moldova was a politicised decision that could destabilise the bloc.
‘Negotiations to join the EU can last for years or decades. The EU has always had strict criteria for accession and it is obvious that at the moment neither Ukraine nor Moldova meets these criteria,’ Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
‘It is clear that this is an absolutely politicised decision, the EU’s desire to demonstrate support for these countries. But such new members could destabilise the EU.’
EU leaders yesterday agreed to start entry talks with Ukraine even as it continues to fight Russia’s invasion, but they could not agree on a 50 billion euro package of financial aid for Kyiv due to opposition from Hungary.
Peskov said Hungary was not a pro-Russian country, but Russia was impressed that it was prepared to defend its own interests.
His comments came just one day after Vladimir Putin’s marathon press conference in which the Russian President accused Europe of kowtowing to the US over support for Ukraine and said he admired Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban for ‘protecting his national interests’.
‘(The West) would not allow us to build normal relations with Ukraine,’ he said during his four-hour-long broadcast.
‘We will not forget it, their aspiration to creep up to our borders and take Ukraine into NATO. They forced our hand.’
‘You see some people, like [Hungarian PM] Orban – he is protecting his national interest. There are not people like that anymore. [Europe] is simply listening to America.’
Russian President Vladimir Putin gestures during his combined call-in-show and annual press conference, on December 14, 2023 in Moscow
From left, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky and European Council President Charles Michel
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky attends a joint press conference during the Nordic Summit in Oslo, Norway, 13 December 2023
Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban arrives for a roundtable meeting of the European Council at the European headquarters in Brussels, on December 14, 2023
News that the EU had agreed to hold entry talks with Ukraine was welcomed by some in Kyiv – but others had little hope their country could accede to the bloc while still at war.
Putin says Israel’s campaign against Hamas is a ‘catastrophe’ while vowing his goals to ‘denazify and demilitarize’ Ukraine have not changed during annual press conference
On Kyiv’s main street Khreshchatyk, Andriy Dyachenko, a 32-year-old programmer, said he was happy with the announcement.
‘Ukraine is moving towards Europe and is continuing on its path and developing in this direction. I think this is very good news,’ he told an AFP journalist.
But Sergiy, a 27-year-old musician in a woolly hat and parka, cautioned that in his view: ‘We will not be allowed to join the EU while hostilities are ongoing: this can only happen in turn.’
‘They do not want to expose themselves to danger’ due to the war, he said, referring to Brussels.
Lyudmyla, a 58-year-old accountant in a grey hooded coat, agreed, saying ‘we really want to be accepted’ but predicting it will not happen ‘until we finish the war’.
While it continues, ‘unfortunately no one wants to take us anywhere,’ she said.
The EU’s announcement on Thursday came after the bloc overcame objections from Hungarian Prime Minister Orban.
But the authoritarian leader has threatened to use his veto powers to block a planned four-year, 50-billion-euro funding package for Ukraine from the EU budget.
Meanwhile in Washington, Republicans last week blocked President Joe Biden’s request for additional emergency aid primarily for Ukraine and Israel.
Ukraine cannot win the war without aid from its international allies, warned Lyudmyla, who declined to give her surname.
‘Everyone is waiting for us to win, but we cannot win on our own. We are a small country, we cannot cope with such a colossus without the help of Europe and the whole world,’ she said.
Olena Zagorulya, a lawyer in a bright red puffer jacket, was dismissive of the EU decision, however, saying that Ukraine needs to learn to stand on its own two feet.
‘Until we take charge of our own affairs and begin to resolve all our issues, we should not count on the European Union and America, we must rely only on ourselves,’ she said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin holds his year-end press conference at Gostiny Dvor exhibition hall in central Moscow on December 14, 2023
The President’s Big Press Conference is an annual event that has been held since 2001
But war in Ukraine is unlikely to end any time soon if Putin’s words in yesterday’s press conference are anything to go by.
The Russian president said he is fighting to safeguard ‘the very existence of Russia’ while ‘denazifying’ Ukraine as he addressed the nation from Moscow’s Gostiny Dvor forum hall.
The conference came a week after he announced he is running in March’s presidential election, which will keep him in the Kremlin until at least 2030.
Opening the conference with an impassioned speech, the Russian president said: ‘The very existence of our country without sovereignty is impossible. It simply will not exist, at least not in the state it is now…
‘That means strengthening our borders, our political system, social sovereignty, economic and technological sphere.’
Speaking on the ‘special military operation’ across the border, Putin said: ‘There will be peace when we achieve our goals. Let’s return to these goals: they have not changed. I’ll remind you of what we talked about then: the denazification of Ukraine, its demilitarisation, its neutral status.’
Turning his attention to the Israel-Hamas conflict, Putin said no comparisons could be made with the situation in Ukraine and said he was committed to providing humanitarian aid to Gazans.
‘Everything that is happening (in Gaza) is catastrophic. But that is not what is going on in Ukraine. The UN today said the Gaza Strip is the largest child’s cemetery in the world. This is objective.
‘First of all we need to provide massive humanitarian support. They’ve asked us to provide more medical equipment and we will do that without a doubt,’ he said, before adding Russia had set up a field hospital near Rafah and was planning a second, in spite of Israeli disapproval.
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