Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told the heads of state or government by video conference on Thursday 24 March that his country believes in the EU. “We believe in you, we need your support, we believe in your people, we believe in the EU”, he said.
In his 10-minute speech, Mr Zelensky thanked the Europeans for the sanctions they had adopted, but said they had been taken too late. “If they had been preventive, Russia would not have gone to war. In any case, no one knows for sure. There was a chance”, he said.
The president called on the EU “not to be late” on his country’s EU accession as the European Commission is due to prepare an opinion on the matter. “You have seen that Ukraine (which fights for European values, editor's note) should become part of the EU in the near future. At least, you have everything you need for that and we have that chance”, he added.
Mr Zelensky reviewed the EU countries, citing those that are most supportive of his country, mainly the Central and Eastern European countries, and those that could do more.
The Ukrainian president called out Hungary’s Victor Orbán. The president called on Mr Orbán to visit the memorial to the Jewish victims of the Holocaust along the Danube in Budapest, adding that mass murder was happening in today’s world. “And that is what Russia is doing today”, he warned, citing Mariupol. “And you hesitate whether or not to impose sanctions, whether or not to let weapons through, whether or not to trade with Russia. There is no time to lose, it is time to decide”, he told the Hungarian Prime Minister.
See the conclusions: https://aeur.eu/f/z4 (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant with the editors)