VIENNA, February 11. /TASS/. Russia will never tolerate Ukraine’s membership in the European Union and NATO, so the chance of integrating Kiev into these structures was lost during the NATO Bucharest summit in 2008, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said.

"Russia will never tolerate a NATO and EU member like Ukraine at its doorstep. The chance of integrating Kiev into these structures was lost during the NATO summit in Bucharest in 2008," Die Presse quoted him as saying in a conversation with former Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schussel.

"During the Bucharest summit, <…> we failed to successfully complete negotiations about Ukraine and Georgia’s accession, which meant that Ukraine lost its prospects for EU and NATO membership. Russia has been steadily gaining power since," he said. "It was foreseeable that Russia will prevent any attempt by Ukraine to integrate into Western organizations."

Ukraine announced a fast-track NATO membership bid in September 2022, and was assured at a NATO summit in Vilnius in 2023 that it would be accepted into the bloc once it met all the required conditions. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on November 28 that Ukraine would be accepted into the North Atlantic Alliance in due time; however, he did not specify when this might happen. The organization has repeatedly emphasized that Ukraine’s admission will be impossible as long as the country remains in the state of a conflict.

In late 2023, Ukraine was granted EU candidate status.