Zelenskyy responds to Merz: Ukraine has been defending Europe fully, not with half measures and has to have right to vote in EU
Source: joy-nest
Zelenskyy responds to Merz: Ukraine has been defending Europe fully, not with half measures and has to have right to vote in EU
Source: joy-nest
23 Comments
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Yes, Ukraine has taken care of all of Europe! They are the men that we should look up to! The men we should be!
Yeah, shifting the goalposts the second the Orbán excuse disappeared is a terrible look. It basically confirms what people suspected all along—that certain Western European leaders are just terrified of the EU’s balance of power permanently shifting eastward.
The EU doesn’t need Ukrainian corruption. Buffer state should remain buffer state.
This statement is a complete turn of events. Russia has predatorily attacked Ukraine, trying to destroy it and turn Ukrainians into Russians. Ukraine is defending itself.
Many countries and alliances around the world, including the EU, are helping Ukraine fight and defend itself against Russia.
This, however, has nothing to do with the EU. If Ukraine wants to join the EU, it must meet certain requirements, and the joining procedures must also take time.
However, before such an opportunity arises, Ukraine must still defend itself and create peace.
It’s partly true, but not enough in my opinion to become a full EU member.
Putin would not risk invading a NATO country. It’s just not gonna happen despite how many times Zelenskyy is screaming about it. Putin is dumb for invading Ukraine but he is not dumb enough to invade NATO.
For the EU there is a lot of risk involved to allow Ukraine to become a voting member. There is still corruption to the core. Possibly even from Zelenskyy’s allies.
I am for Ukraine in the EU and it absolutely has proven its suitability, but the EU has lots of internal problems and so does Ukraine in its war on russian corruption. Many people don’t realize that corruption isn’t truly an inherent thing to Ukraine, but most all of it is russian influenced and Ukraine used the wartime powers to stamp it out which is why these big corruption scandals were publicized, most people not getting this was due to their anti-corruption forces. The issue is the country has no territorial integrity, it has a massive number of russians within its territory that can be instrumentalized, it offers citizenships to unknown people from around the world running away from something, and can be exploited by russia for disastrous influence in the EU which is already dealing with massive amounts of russian operatives from the AfD and even partner parties of Merz’s own CDU. The ssister party CSU of Bavaria consistently props up russian-leaning authoritarians like Orban.
I see Zelensky’s side, but this is not a sure thing and people like Poroschenko keep trying to prop themselves up as the competition and he’s making headway by recruiting from the diaspora and refugees in Europe. Poroshenko is semi-trustworthy.
There are just too many complications for the moment.
Defending Europe implies Russia was ever planning on advancing through the continent, which is not true because there is a NATO hard border surrounding Russia and Ukraine.
It’s bad timing, they should have done this before orban left as now it looks like a desperate attempt to delay accession.
The fact is, the EU is giving enormous amounts of aid and defence loans to Ukraine, because it’s just and because Ukraine is a buffer state.
Having a full EU memberstate join while in a war would be catastrophic! Huge population so all of a sudden you have a full block of MEPs who have no priority except diverting more eu funds, a full Ukrainian comissioner who will be essentially a war comissioner regardless of portfolio and a tangible seat on the council to steer legislation.
It’s a huge conflict of interest being a decision maker in the body that already gives so much resources to you. Post war would be more sensible.
Lets see a couple more rounds of democratics election first, i say.
I sympathise with Zelenskyy here, but the EU needs to ensure that any states it admits will be functional within the union. There have been too many issues with veto abuse, democracy and rule of law backsliding, and countries whose values are not truly compatible with the European project.
If Ukraine wants to join the EU, they have to meet the same criteria as everyone else. While the Ukrainians have suffered an awful lot from the Russian invasion, Ukraine before the war was a seriously corrupt country. Ukraine should be close to the EU after the war is over, but we need to play it safe also and not create a different issue in the process
Ukraine has done more for Europe than Europe has in the past few years. They absolutely have a right to be a part, shit they already are and are working the hardest anyone ever has.
No, Ukraine has fully defended itself, which has benefited the EU.
Zelenskyy’s not wrong Ukraine has been taking the full force of Russia’s invasion while the rest of Europe watches and sends aid from a distance. But Aqualung makes a fair point: it’s partly political posturing. He knows Ukraine can’t just skip the line, but he’s pushing now because “we’re literally bleeding for Europe” is a strong card to play. Realistically, EU membership takes years and requires meeting tons of criteria a war-torn country still fighting won’t get fast-tracked. Still, you can’t blame him for trying.
Imagine if Russia is able to successfully turn Ukraine’s drone army against Europe because European leaders are too scared and ignorant to start deporting all Russian nationals without exception, and giving Ukraine the support it needs now, while there is still time.
Give him a hand, he’ll want an arm…
Zelenskyy is usually right but sometimes he goes a little bit too far with his declarations. This is one of those times.
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If Merz had balls he would have answered Zelensky that Ukraine is not defending Europe at all. Nobody asked Zelensky anything.
First, Ukraine defended itself, not Europe. Second, Ukraine is not an exception. Everyone who wants to join the EU has to fulfill certain criteria, and Ukraine is no exception to that.
I would be surprised if Zelenskyy actually said it this bluntly. The statement isn’t entirely wrong about defending EU but he knows the rules to the EU market and can’t expect to change this. Eu has been supporting Ukraine in this war
I’m tired of Zelensky’s narrative that Ukraine is somehow defending all of Europe.
If hypothetically Russia wanted to invade the rest of Europe, they’d already be able to do it through their (or Belarus’) border with the Baltics, Finland and Poland.
I understand Zelensky and would like to see Ukraine in the EU as a full member. However, Merz is essentially offering a realistic way for Ukraine to enjoy all of the benefits of the EU (including security, economic growth, access to the single-market) but fast-tracked and realistic. Every member state of the EU currently could veto the accession of Ukraine in its current state. With how opinions are, a lot of them would in fact use that veto. Admitting Ukraine without voting rights would decrease a lot of the critiques those countries could have.
The most important thing to do if Ukraine eventually does get limited rights in the EU is to agree when Ukraine will get full rights. If criterium X is met, Ukraine gets Y right. And so on. They will work to meet those criteria and thus integrate into the EU. This seems the most realistic way for Ukraine to enter the EU and eventually get full member rights.
Its been defending Ukraine. Russians had no intention of invading Europe.