Hungary and Slovakia have urged the European Union to seek peace between Ukraine and Russia, opposing Kyiv’s requests for the bloc to send it more ammunition and impose tougher sanctions on Moscow amid fierce fighting on the battlefield.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy was scheduled to speak by video link to EU leaders on Thursday, as they gathered for a summit which Brussels said should address the crisis in the Middle East while reaffirming the bloc’s commitment to helping Ukraine defeat Russia’s invasion.
“Our meeting comes at a time of great global instability and insecurity, exacerbated most recently by developments in the Middle East,” European Council president Charles Michel said in an invitation to the summit. “These developments require our immediate attention, without distracting us from our continued support to Ukraine.”
Slovakia’s new populist prime minister Robert Fico announced that his country would not send any more military aid to Ukraine, though analysts said it now had little spare equipment to give to Kyiv after deliveries made by the previous government.
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“I will support zero military aid to Ukraine ... An immediate halt to military operations is the best solution we have for Ukraine. The EU should change from an arms supplier to a peacemaker,” Mr Fico said on Thursday.
His reluctance to impose fresh sanctions on Moscow could be more problematic for the EU and Kyiv, however: “I will not vote for any sanctions against Russia unless we see analyses of their impact on Slovakia,” he said. “If there are to be such sanctions that will harm us, like most sanctions have, I can see no reason to support them.”
Hungary’s populist prime minister Viktor Orban holds similar positions, and defended his meeting in China last week with Russian president Vladimir Putin.
“We would like to do everything to have peace. Therefore, we keep open all the communication lines to the Russians… This is a strategy, we are proud of it,” Mr Orban said. “We are the only ones to speak on behalf and in favour of peace, which would be in the interest of everybody in Europe.”
Ukraine fears the West’s attention and resources could move to the spiralling conflict in the Middle East, just as Russia launches a major attack on the eastern town of Avdiivka, a second winter of air strikes on the Ukrainian power grid looms, and the US says Moscow’s arsenal is now being replenished with ammunition from North Korea.
“I will reiterate Romania’s firm support for Ukraine for as long as it takes and plead for the opening of the EU accession negotiations with Ukraine and Moldova by the end of 2023,” Romanian president Klaus Iohannis said before the summit.
His Lithuanian counterpart Gitanas Nauseda said the EU “has no right for war fatigue” and must “keep supporting Ukraine despite the fact that we have another hot spot” in the Middle East.
Black Sea security was also expected to be discussed, as Ukraine denied reports that it had halted cargo traffic through a new shipping corridor in the region due to the threat from sea mines laid by Russia.
