the united states, they have an understanding of global policy, global politics and how things work. so, let s see what happens after midterms in the usa, and then see how the europe will react. i guess one big card that vladimir putin believes he still can play, even at a time when his forces on the front lines are suffering reverses, the card is his energy dominance, domination of europe. he believes that that will ensure that europe, in the end, cannot sustain its current levels of support to ukraine. has he got a point? no, he has not. he has not got a point, because he miscalculated in his understanding of our society, our western
i am happy to see that. and i definitely, as czech minister of foreign affairs, i am not in a position to openly and heavily criticise any of the partners helping ukraine, too. the head of the imf, kristalina georgieva, says that over the next year, ukraine is so close to economic collapse, it will need between $34; billion a month just to stay afloat. now, in the united states, the republicans are saying that if they take the house of representatives, they will ensure that there s no longer, as they put it, a blank cheque going from the us to ukraine. so, europe is very probably going to have to step up in a way it hasn t before. do you think europe is capable of doing that? i m sure that europe will need to do so if the stance of the united states will be such as the republican party is proposing to have it. but i don t think that the usa would move in a direction that would strip them of having such kind of influence in europe. and in the end of the day,
the other fronts are migration orchestrated from belarus. we ve seen it last summer and last year. energy war is another one, and also the disinformation war. so, we have many fronts of this hybrid war, which is from russia against europe. to be clear, you re saying that, in that sense, you feel you are at war with russia? in hybrid war. yes, we are. we are in hybrid war with russia. definitely. right. well, hybrid war these days is a form of conflict. and i m just wondering whether you can assure me that the european union has the means to fight, and fight effectively on this hybrid front. the eu is trying to grasp it. the eu is successful, more or less, on different issues, but in the end of the day, it s the responsibility of national states to protect its territorial sovereignty and integrity and integrity
so, for us, european project is a very important one. so, how do you explain hungary, for example? hungary, which in the midst of the summer crisis, where putin was ramping up and escalating in ukraine, the hungarians went to moscow and signed a new gas deal. they are so determined to stay in a warm relationship with moscow that they ve refused to send any weapons to ukraine. they won t even let weapons cross their territory to go into ukraine. it makes a mockery of your talk of unity and a coherent european position. i wouldn t say it makes a mockery of our european position because all common european positions are happening with agreement of hungary in the end of the day. so, that needs to be said in the very beginning. but on the other side, i am.i agree that this is concerning. it concerns me. and i am not alone in europe, who is concerned with the hungarian stance in terms
is doing that, is to have a proper social package and cap energy prices and compensate for that. and that s exactly what the czech republic is doing. and as i see, many other countries in europe are having the same recipe, more or less, because every country is solving that issue differently. we have a strong european consensus on that. so, in the end of the day, i am optimistic that we will be able to come through this winter as a europe successfully. but how sustainable is your policy? as i understand it, it s costing you almost 3% of gdp to cushion your population from the reality of the energy price rises. your budget deficit is rising alarmingly, and you ve got thousands of people already taking to the streets, waving banners, saying, you give everything to ukraine and tell us to wear two jumpers. so, politically, your government is clearly running into trouble.