Exkluzív: Zelenskyy szerint a jövő az Európai Unióban van
Az Euronews keddi bővítési csúcstalálkozóján Volodymyr Zelenskyy ukrán elnök hangsúlyozta Ukrajna elkötelezettségét az Európai Unióhoz való csatlakozás mellett.
00:11My guest today is the President of Ukraine, Vladimir Zelensky.
00:15He is joining us from a secret location close to the front line.
00:20And that makes already the point.
00:23We are discussing this important topic of EU enlargement with the country.
00:28We are during an ongoing war.
00:33What a challenging situation and what a decisive moment in history.
00:39So, Mr. President, thanks again for joining us.
00:43And let's start with a more strategic question.
00:47Is joining the European Union the strongest security guarantee for you?
00:55Thank you for the questions.
00:58Undoubtedly, that is a very important security guarantee for Ukraine.
01:03But first, as for security guarantees, I would like to say that the most important thing is the Ukrainian values.
01:11Ukraine has chosen to be the EU member through the similar feeling of life, freedom, democracy, humanity, respect to the human rights.
01:23And that is why we are fighting today for all of that, for our land, for our homes, for the rights and the freedoms of our state.
01:36I am now at Pokrovsk direction.
01:39And I have come here to support our warriors, our soldiers.
01:44Of course, there are some of the issues I need to solve, but the most important thing is the moral support of our warriors at the hottest direction of the combats of the front line today.
01:54And believe me, they are at war, not only for the sake of their own families, not only for their own homes, undoubtedly, it is important, but for the Ukrainian future, the future of Ukraine in the European Union.
02:09So, you mentioned it, the war seems to be intensifying.
02:15Russia fired in October more missiles at your country than ever before.
02:20Do you think that the EU is doing enough to end this war?
02:23Russia has intensified only because they don't succeed on the land, in the front line.
02:34That is why Putin doesn't have anything to sell to his own society.
02:38There is no success, and obviously it is very hard for him.
02:42He is spending and wasting lots of people.
02:45More than 300,000 of Russians were either wounded or they perished.
02:51360,000 of Russians during these 10 months of this year.
02:58This is a huge number.
02:59So, he started the energy terror.
03:01He hits against our energy sector.
03:03That is why there are so many missiles.
03:05This is the only thing he likes to achieve, chaos, so that people wouldn't have power during the winter without the water supply.
03:12This is how he sees his success.
03:15But he will not succeed in that as well.
03:16We will recover, and we will protect ourselves.
03:19And undoubtedly, without the help of the leaders of the European Union, it will be very difficult.
03:26It would be incredibly difficult.
03:28Because the systems of air defense, which we are given, and I would like to express my gratitude to Germany.
03:34Recently, they gave us two Patriot systems, and we are developing them.
03:41So, they will be working.
03:42It is not enough, of course.
03:44But still, the whole Europe is helping us, as well as in the gas import, in the equipment delivery, to recover power and electricity supply.
03:55All of that is so important, especially during the war.
03:57But if we speak whether the EU does enough to force Putin to stop, I think that today, still, we need the US and Europe today.
04:09And then we'll have the chance to stop Putin.
04:12And what would you say?
04:13Can this war be won militarily?
04:16Or, you mentioned the US already, will, in the end, require a negotiated settlement, like President Trump says it?
04:26Well, the choice of the military way is the choice of Russia only.
04:33It started their aggression with that, and without any diplomatic issues.
04:39They started it with the military way.
04:42And undoubtedly, they would like to have the military victory.
04:45It will never take place.
04:47If Ukraine is standing, if Europe is pressing, does not put up with that.
04:51That is very important, to solve the issues on the support of Ukraine, that is both funding of our internal production and manufacturing, and air defense, what I mentioned before, support Ukraine in all of the spheres.
05:05And the United States of America need to be open to the opportunities of long-distance weapons, long-range weapons.
05:13That is very important.
05:15Even as a deterring factor, we need to have it, to use it.
05:20We need the support of the US, we need the support of President Trump about that.
05:24And it will be a decisive pressure against Russia.
05:27Then sanctions, which are so important.
05:30And here I'd like to express my gratitude to Europe, the European Union for the 19th sanctions package.
05:36And Europe as well, because they are not postponing that.
05:42They are constantly forcing Russia to decrease their economy, which then it has to spend on to this war.
05:50That is important as well.
05:52And the latest sanctions of President Trump and the United States of America were really important against the oil companies of Russia.
06:00We cannot stop on that.
06:01In fact, we need secondary sanctions, we need following stronger gas sanctions, and also against nuclear generation of Russian Federation.
06:11All of those steps are really comprehensible, but against their military-industrial complex, so that they wouldn't construct and create so many missiles, which Russia is using against Ukraine.
06:25All of those things are the tools of pressure, and this is the right thing to do if the aggressor is inadequate and doesn't want to stop.
06:36These are the tools, the things which would force and push Russia to the negotiations process, to diplomacy.
06:43And undoubtedly, in this diplomacy, we'll need both America and Europe.
06:48Let's stay one moment longer with the President of the United States.
06:52Has Donald Trump given you any indication that he supports Ukraine joining the European Union?
07:00Donald Trump is supporting Ukraine.
07:04As the future EU member, we have discussed that with him.
07:08He is supporting that, and he understands that this is the choice of the Ukrainian people, and Ukraine is the part of Europe.
07:15Geographically, geopolitically, and historically.
07:20We were talking about the blockage of some of the points by the Hungarian leader, and I asked President Trump, if he supports me in that, to help us.
07:34So he told me that he will do everything possible, whatever he can.
07:38So the Commission's new enlargement report we are discussing today here delivers a lot of positive content concerning Ukraine.
07:50At one point, it states, and I quote,
07:52And despite the very difficult circumstances the country finds itself in, on account of Russia's war of aggression, Ukraine continued to demonstrate remarkable commitment to the EU accessions pass over the last year.
08:07Remarkable commitment, Mr. President.
08:10Does that sound like a compliment to you, or more like much more needs to happen?
08:14For us, it's a very high assessment, evaluation of our work and our service, and I would like to thank for that to the European Union, the Presidents Kosztu and Ursula von der Leyen,
08:33and all of the leaders who are taking part in this process, and also the technical team, that is how we sometimes say, but the technical team are the huge number of people, people who are helping Ukraine that much.
08:47So, for us, Ukraine is fighting for its independence, and our future is in the EU, which is the part of our independence, the part of independence from the vector and factor of Russia.
09:08And for us, it is an important factor that we are highly assessed during this year.
09:14It is not that easy for us, during the war, to conduct these or those legislative amendments, obviously because of different reasons.
09:23I don't want to complain.
09:25We are a very strong country opposing Russia and their wish to destroy us.
09:31That is why I am sure that we will introduce all of the legislative amendments and other necessary steps.
09:37We have faced the task, the assignment, to implement all of that, to prepare all of the clusters till the end of the current year.
09:46We will be ready, or at least we will try to do our best, whatever we can, to achieve that.
09:52And in that, about that, in my opinion, we have the united country, united population society, the power authorities, and that's an important factor.
10:05I wouldn't like this process to be too long, too lengthy.
10:09I mean, the processes which do not depend on us.
10:13Those are clusters opening.
10:15Why?
10:16Well, because the EU factor, the fact that Ukraine is fighting for itself in Europe, is very important.
10:24For the morale, for the moral support, both of our people and all of our military.
10:32That is very important, that this is the bilateral movement, and we would really like that to be well assessed by all of the possible institutions and all of the leaders who are sometimes in doubt.
10:48So, for us, the quicker Ukraine is able to open the clusters and to have the fully-fledged negotiations platforms, the better it is for us.
11:01It will be a supporting factor for Ukraine.
11:03So, as you know, and in the last weeks it was always reported, here in Brussels there are some concerns about judicial independence in Ukraine, especially after the creation of two independent anti-corruption bodies.
11:19The enlargement report says, recent negative trends, including a growing pressure on the specialized anti-corruption agencies and civil society must be decisively reversed.
11:32What will you do to address these concerns?
11:35Well, in my opinion, I do not see that in the report.
11:42I know that there are certain messages, but I would check the real quotes from the report.
11:50But secondly, during the war, we have implemented the widest, the broadest anti-corruption infrastructure in Europe.
11:59And I don't know about any country who has that many anti-corruption authorities.
12:07Maybe it can be in other countries, but we are doing everything possible.
12:10There is a plan, and it's not the plan which we are inventing.
12:20This is the plan which we create in the dialogue with the European Union to start the negotiations platform, to open the clusters.
12:30Ukraine has to stick to the very specific list of laws and reforms.
12:37And that is why, during the war, we need to be more specific in our steps.
12:46We are focused on that in a sufficient way.
12:49There is a request from Ukraine.
12:52Our legislation should coincide or be approximate to the European one.
12:58There are certain laws and reforms, and we are implementing them.
13:01An interesting idea discussed here in Brussels, as you know, allow new members in earlier, but without full membership rights at first.
13:12Would you be willing to speed up a session, to give up a veto at the beginning?
13:18No, how can I understand that?
13:22It seems to me it's very important that we would like that Ukraine could get such a treatment as to the equals.
13:34And if we speak about the EU membership, it has to be fully pledged.
13:39It seems to me that that is very important when we have at the same table equal countries, in spite of their size of the territory or the population.
13:53It's important that they share similar values.
13:57In my opinion, you cannot be semi or demi member of the EU.
14:03I'm not sure that Ukraine has to bargain with its own values.
14:33Russia failed to do that.
14:36So I don't know, I don't think that the Hungarian leader can do that.
14:44You cannot stop the people in their rights.
14:48Well, yes, you can postpone something, but it will not be for the use of both our countries.
14:54When I'm speaking about our countries, about Ukraine and Hungary, I'm totally sure that Hungarians are very friendly people.
15:02They are supporting Ukrainians, as well as the Ukrainians are respecting any nation of Europe.
15:08This is the equality.
15:10This is the respect and the values of our relations.
15:15That is very important for the future.
15:17We don't have the right as the leaders to think about ourselves and about our elections, because this is just one minute in the history of our nations.
15:28That's just nothing in comparison with what can be destroyed, destroyed relations between the people.
15:35Well, this is the most important, not to lose this good neighborhood.
15:41That's what's important.
15:43I don't think that I have to offer something to Viktor Orban.
15:47I think that Viktor Orban has to offer something for Ukraine, which is protecting the whole Europe from Russia.
15:54And even now, during this war, we did not get any support from him, support of our vision of life.
16:06We wouldn't like, still, that Viktor would support Russia, because blocking of Ukraine in the EU is the very specific support by Viktor of Putin.
16:17And that is definitely not that good.
16:20In my opinion, that is my subjective opinion.
16:22There is a totally personal impression from my side.
16:28Sometimes it looks a bit personal between you and Viktor Orban.
16:33Are you ready to repair this relationship, or are you simply hoping for a government change in Budapest next year?
16:42First of all, I don't think that anyone has the right to influence the choice of the Hungarian people.
16:52And the elections in Hungary, in Budapest, that is their personal right.
16:58This war, the war for the freedom of the country, which is 40 times smaller than the aggressor is,
17:07This war will not forget anyone and anything.
17:13There will be peace, peaceful times, and we would need to look straight forward into the eyes of each other.
17:21We need to have the opportunity to respect each other, and that's it.
17:26It's nothing about being personal.
17:28It's not about personalities.
17:29We are at war for our survival, for our lives.
17:35And we would really like the Prime Minister of Hungary to support us, at least not block us, if we do everything.
17:43If there are the rules, and we comply with them, whatever is needed to open the clusters, we would like us to be respected.
17:51And it's not only the respect to us, but the respect of the Hungarian leader to the rules and regulations of the European Union,
17:58as Hungary is the member of the EU.
18:00Those are the rules.
18:01So, you need to do lots of important things, and then the cluster after cluster is opened.
18:08That is the way.
18:10So, let's end with a, let's say, more personal approach, and let us look forward.
18:16Where will Ukraine and the EU be in 2030?
18:20Or, as I said, in a bit more personal view, will you be the president who brought Ukraine into the EU?
18:28First and foremost, I would like to believe that Ukraine will be in the EU before that.
18:39You opened again the timeline.
18:40What is your wish?
18:42If it's earlier than 2030?
18:45I would like that to take place in the fair way, when Ukraine is standing for itself, and when the war is over.
18:54I think it would be just and fair.
18:56Because, as I already mentioned, we are at war for this kind of future, for our Ukraine, and for the future of Ukraine in Europe.
19:04Undoubtedly, I would like to be the president who is the president of Ukraine, which is in the EU.
19:18But it does not mean, definitely, that this is the main priority.
19:23The main thing is that Ukraine could join the EU.
19:26But who is the president then, at the moment, is the secondary thing.
19:32So, thank you for this preview.
19:34A bit of personal preview.
19:36Thank you for being our guest today.
19:38And have a good and successful day.
19:41And when we wish you that, it's much more than just a polite closing.
19:47So, thank you for coming on the Europe Conversation.
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