By Meabh McMahon & Jeremy Fleming-Jones
Published on •Updated
Ukraine is confident that it will eventually be able to overcome Hungarian resistance to its path to EU accession, the head of the country’s Mission to the EU told Euronews’ morning show Europe Today on Thursday.
Vselovod Chentsov came into the studio in Brussels for an exclusive interview as the bloc’s leaders gather in Brussels for another critical summit, with Ukrainian EU accession one of the agenda items.
“We’re fighting to stop this war first of all and we’re fighting for our European future. Ukraine is a candidate state and we’re ready to start accession talks as soon as there is consensus,” Chentsov said.
Pressed by Euronews’ Meabh McMahon on Hungary’s resistance to Ukraine’s EU accession process, he said: “You mentioned that Hungary is blocking. I would concentrate on who is supporting, so we have 26 member states supporting, and I’m sure we’ll be able to convince Hungary to get on board.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Chentsov said he was confident that US President Donald Trump would “stick to his word” on a commitment given during Wednesday’s NATO summit in The Hague to supply the war-torn state with Patriot missiles.
Trump told a press conference on Wednesday that Patriots were “very hard to get” but that “we are going to see if we can make some of them available” after a 50-minute meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on the sidelines of the NATO summit.
The ambassador also responded to Trump’s touting the possibility that Russia’s Vladimir Putin may invade other countries following the full-scale invasion of Ukraine during a press conference at the NATO summit in The Hague.
Trump was asked whether he considered Putin an enemy and if he believed the Russian leader had territorial ambitions beyond Ukraine. “It’s possible”, Trump replied.
“Its’ good there is an understanding that Russia is a threat and we kept telling (people) about this imminent threat if Ukraine is not defended, if Ukraine is left alone,” said Chentsov.
“To avoid this continuation, this broadening of this conflict, Europe and the US has to help Ukraine to stop this war,” the ambassador concluded.
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