civilian infrastructure is one. attempting to undermine european support for kyiv is another. how s that going? well, my guest is czech foreign ministerjan lipavsky, an ardent supporter of ukraine in a country facing a deepening energy and economic crisis. is europe s pro ukraine stand sustainable? foreign ministerjan lipavsky in prague, welcome to hardtalk. hello and thank you for having me. it s a pleasure to have you
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 of hungarian russian relationship. let us be explicit about what putin is doing in europe. do you believe he is using disinformation techniques, other forms of political
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 united states, they have an understanding of global policy, global politics and how things work. so, let s see what happens
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 of their societies, so the eu can help, but in the end of the day, it s up to states. many in europe are already wondering what the endgame is,
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 civilisation, that we are very resilient and we are able to survive even such situations. and the war in ukraine, russian