Broadcast. You are welcome to subscribe to radio libertys youtube channel. Also, if you havent subscribed yet, subscribe. Also, share this video with your friends, then its important verified information will be able to be seen by as many people as possible, well, in the comments, if , for example, you are watching us from the khmelnytskyi region, write what the situation is in your city or village. In slovakia , the government of robert fico was approved, politicians were in key positions. Who oppose the provision of aid to ukraine. In particular , stavy blaner, who called the war against ukraine, a conflict between russia and the usa, became slovakias foreign minister, and Robert Kaliniak headed the ministry of defense. Earlier, he resigned from the post of minister of internal affairs after the murder of journalist jan kuciak and was accused of corruption. Radio svoboda correspondent zoryana stepanenko will tell the details. A ceremony that can become a turning point in the history of not only slovakia. The day before, there was a new government led by the leader of the party that won the election, robert fitz. During the campaign, he spoke against military aid to ukraine and promised in case of victory not to give it a single bullet , unlike his predecessors, and also to insist on negotiations between ukraine and russia. President of slovakia, approving the new government, mentioned the new challenges facing it, the increase in energy sources, food products, and also expressed the hope that the fitz government will maintain a course for good relations with its neighbors. In particular, ukraine, which is in a state of war. The newly appointed Prime Minister, in his turn , reminded that he was in this chair for the fourth time and promised a sovereign foreign policy. Today, fico, whose rhetoric has often been compared to Hungarian Prime Minister viktor orban in brussels, now represents slovakia at summits of eu leaders, and next day, diplomats who under conditions of anonymity, they shared their expectations from this summit with journalists, noted the rhetoric of the candidate and the leader, sometimes. Different things, so they are not in a hurry to make predictions about the course of the new slovak government. The president s and heads of government of the eu countries, who are meeting here today, are expected to discuss the events in the middle east. Charles michel, in his letter inviting the leaders to the summit, writes they require immediate attention, without distraction, continues the president of the European Council in the same paragraph , the European Union from constant support of ukraine. It is also traditionally on the agenda of leaders and diplomats who spoke to journalists on condition of anonymity. Assured that they do not notice any signs of fatigue from ukraine on their part. At the summit, in particular, it will be discussed how to speed up the provision of military support to it, which is necessary to speed up, it was also mentioned in the draft conclusions of the summit, which ended up at the disposal of radio liberty. It also mentions the eus intentions to help ukraine survive the winter with generators, mobile heating points, etc. Use will also be discussed frozen russian assets by ukraine. In the final statement of the summit it is stated, then. Decisive progress, so the European Commission is urged to speed up the proposals. Volodymyr zelenskyi, who will address the participants of the summit today via video link, called earlier to spread belgiums experience in using frozen russian assets throughout europe. This country created a special fund to support ukraine in the amount of one billion 700 million euros, which is filled from taxation on real estate funds, and the eu will also work on further promotion of the ukrainian peace formula to the wider world. Said in the draft declaration, and will once again confirm its intentions to help ukraine in its fight against russian aggression, as much as necessary, in particular with security commitments, so that it can deter aggression in the future. The form in which they will be offered has yet to be decided, the leaders mentioned in the draft conclusions of the summit want to hear specifics during their december meeting, at which, as expected in kyiv, they can decide to start negotiations with ukraine on joining the European Union. From brussels. Zoriana stepanenko, marek hajduk, radio liberty. The words of the Prime Minister of hungary, viktor orban, in which he compared his countrys membership in the eu to the soviet occupation did not remain. No answer the head of eu diplomacy, josep borel, believes that nobody is forcing hungary to be a member of the European Union. Borel said this at the annual conference of the center for european reforms, europe and the world. Hungary knows about the soviet occupation, i remember budapest in 1956 with russian tanks on the streets, i was nine years old. Frankly, i do not see any similarity between the soviet occupation of budapest and what is happening in berlemont. I didnt see a single tank there, no weapons. Hungary joined the European Union in 2004. Earlier, viktor orban, who is known for his critical statements about ukraine, also expressed doubts about the possible approval of ukraines accession to the eu. As the head of the hungarian government stated, it is not known, and i quote, how large the territory of ukraine is, since the war is ongoing. Instead, in an exclusive interview with radio liberty, the speaker of the Chamber Member of the czech parliament, pekareva adamova said that Hungarian Prime Minister viktor orban is probably the eu leader who is questioning ukraines accession to the European Union before the end of the russianukrainian war. But radio svoboda journalist rikard jozvik writes that the president of the European Commission, ursula funder, will probably visit ukraine in early november. According to him, she would not have planned the trip so close to the date of publication of the European Commissions enlargement reports if she had not had good news. Let me remind you, european on november 8, the commission will publish an assessment of the progress achieved by ukraine on the way to the European Union. Evgeny magda, director of the institute of world politics, joins our broadcast, good morning. Good morning. Mr. Yevgeny, the future of the eu, is it with or without hungary, what do you think, and how do you feel about orbans statements in general, his position is important, or will the hungarian voter decide whether to remain in hungary in the eu, if such a question even will you stay or not . I think that orbans statements have a political basis, and. Already in april last year, the fidesz party won the elections and formed a constitutional majority, and during these elections, orban said that he would not allow hungary to be drawn into the russianukrainian war, that is, he, to a certain extent that is unpleasant for us, he defends the program provisions, from which he won the election, that must be understood. He has his own history of relations with vladimir putin, many remember his visit to moscow in january of the 22nd. But im not sure, more than sure, what he knew about the prospects of an invasion of ukraine, and actually nato countries, their intelligence had the relevant information, lets be frank even earlier, in the fall of 21, this is the second orban can imagine a bigger threat at the moment and we will see it today, i think in brussels , if he will act. In tandem with robert fico, that is, a similar situation not in the context of ukraine, in the context of the attitude towards brussels, was a few years ago when orban interacted with representatives of law and justice, with poland, and accordingly, then, the two of them fought, so to speak against, well, in their words, the eurobureaucracy, but we see that they acted somewhat differently. Context, as far as it will be now, well, we, we will see, we will see, actually, literally, literally these days will be the first manifestations, will it be a tandem, in any case, orban, as we know, congratulated fice on his election, well with by the fact that he is returning to power again, but what do you think, precisely fitzs position for example in relation to ukraine, if he previously spoke against supporting ukraine, can he maintain this policy of his, or is it already there, having won the position, becoming the Prime Minister, he can radically change. Its policy and, accordingly, not to block any issues in the context of providing aid to ukraine, not to block issues of ukraines future accession to the eu, and so on. In your story, with reference to anonymous diplomats, it was already said that candidates often have a different rhetoric than incumbent politicians, this is true, but it would be strange if he went to the elections with the same rhetoric that the ruling party used, i think that it will not be as sharp a position as a flying position hungary, but to expect that fico, well, immediately, you know, will become the best friend of ukraine, it would be strange, in my opinion, ukraine in this situation should initiate consultations with the countries of the visegrad four, three of which are our immediate neighbors, plus the Czech Republic , because we have a certain level of friction. With all of them, well, for example, in the Czech Republic we cannot in any way appoint our ambassador, and the fact that yevhen perebeinis left there, i think, creates, well, quite significant problems in ukrainian. Relations, despite the fact that he passed in prague the other day, the summit of the crimean platform, that is, we have to extend our hand and emphasize that we are a warring country for which the experience of our Central European neighbors in the matter of european euroatlantic integration is important, it will be difficult for any politician to simply reject this hand extended by the representatives warring country, well, thats how it works, thats the political logic at the moment in our modern europe, and thats why i think that such a step would be, well , at least justified. Mr. Yevgeny, considering what orban has, for example questions to the European Union, the European Union as an organization has questions to orban and his policy, is it possible and appropriate now to talk about the fact that the European Union is waiting for reform in the future, perhaps in the context of the fact that if one member of the European Union is against it, then the decision is not taken, as it will not be like that now, maybe there will be, i dont know, there will be a majority of 2 3 of the European Union to make decisions, approve them, or work in some other direction, but the European Union as an organization, it needs to be reformed in the near future, in the near future also . You you know, the European Union has already been in existence for more than 30 years, and of course, what will happen, well, its fairly rapid expansion of positions raised the question of what it will be like next. This, it really, really exists at the moment, it is clear and it will be necessary to work with it, it is the first time, the second time, well, actually, maybe, there may be a process of reforming, but the appropriate decisions must be made, all the same will follow the current procedure, i. E. , in order to change the procedure, consensus will have to be reached in the current form, and it will also not be easy, i think that in fact the position of the central euro. Countries weighs a lot on the issue of the money they did not receive from the common funds of the European Union, where this money was frozen due to problems with democracy, well, that is, brussels influenced politics in this way and budapest and warsaw and accordingly, for example, it is said that the leader of the civil coalition, donald tusk, who has a good chance of becoming the next Prime Minister of poland, will also take part in the summit, sorry, in the summit of the European Union, which will be held today and tomorrow, but it should be taken into account that tusk served as the head of the European Council for two terms, and he has fairly wellestablished connections in brussels, that is, i think that the process of reforming the European Union will continue, but i dont want to expect any melee on this issue i can, negotiations on ukraines accession to the European Union should begin even though kyiv. Does not control its entire territory, this was stated by the Vice President of the European Parliament, the start of negotiations, how significant and essential is this step in the context of the entire path that ukraine is taking to become a fullfledged and fullfledged member of the European Union . In my opinion, there are two factors here, on the one hand, these negotiations are highly likely to start. At the end of this year and the visit of ursula fonden was mentioned again, she is indeed very active in the ukrainian direction, but in this context i would advise not to forget that in june next year the elections to the European Parliament will be held, and the european the peoples party, which today dominates the European Union, it would like to be, well, to maintain its positions, its natural, thats why ursula funderlajen and Roberta Metzola and even josep borel made appropriate enough, i would say proukrainian statements, maybe even strongly proukrainian statements, that is, i would not completely rule out the preelection context, but we must be aware that the beginning of negotiations and the actual process of joining the European Union, they will be, to put it mildly, stretched in time, that is, optimism. Regarding the statements of the ukrainian leadership that we can become a member of the eu in two years , i do not agree, that is, in essence, this is still a matter of years, it is not the nearest prospect, not the nearest two years and not the nearest tentatively four years. Lets face the truth, ukraine, even during our current conversation with you, continues to bear losses and is actually the poorest country in europe, including the losses caused by russia. She. Before the largescale invasion , russia was not at the forefront of Economic Development either aggression caused us Enormous Economic damage. The largescale assistance that we receive from the European Union, from the United States, from other partners, it helps us to stay afloat, but it does not solve all the problems, that is, they can be solved after the end of hostilities, this is an absolutely objective reality, yes this is for years, if im not mistaken, among the postsoviet countries, the fastest way to negotiate was estonia, which spent eight or nine years on joining the eu, and we understand the scale of estonia. Even geographical and scale of ukraine, mr. Yevgeny, and about the extent of reformed and nonreformed, that is, about reformedness, in addition to the fact that ukraine is currently in a state of a largescale war against russia, it is defending itself, a large area has suffered a lot of damage, which we have already discussed with you they said that there is still a significant advantage , rather a significant drawback on the way to the European Union, which ukraine actually wants to overcome and still reach, but the biggest obstacle is corruption, it is not reformed legislation, it is a bureaucratic procedure it is the accession to the European Union , i dont know, maybe there is Something Else that prevents ukraine from becoming a full member of the eu in the next few years, if we are talking about a year or two. I think that the main factor is still the lack of a transparent court, because no private investor will come to ukraine after the end of hostilities with certain political things, when he. Will understand that his money is reliably protected here, and state aid, state aid, it can be different, we will see it, for example, with the arrival of the fizo government, that is, slovakia itself, it seems to me, has already given everything it could from its arsenals to ukraine, well, what was possible for it, that is, it is not a key donor of military equipment, but it will definitely produce zuzana howitzers by order of ukraine, so i am in favor of so that we, well, lets say this, do not build unnecessary illusions for ourselves, but understand that to reform ukraine, to carry out the necessary transformation during the war, that is, in our country, this, you know, is a bad explanation that we have a war, so we cannot do anything , and in conclusion i will have one more question, it will concern the United States of america, the new speaker of the house of representatives, mike johnson , in response to a question about whether there will be an increase in aid to ukraine, said that he would agree to it, but under certain conditions, actually. What are your expectations from those, obviously, debates, from those minds, which will continue with the Biden Administration and between democrats and republicans, regarding future sup