BUDAPEST, August 5. /TASS/. Vladimir Zelensky must accept the terms of settling the conflict proposed by Russia in order to serve the interests of his country, Zoltan Koskovics, geopolitical analyst at the Budapest-based Center for Fundamental Rights, has said.
"These are conditions Kiev should accept. They allow the Ukraine to survive," he wrote on his page on the X social network. "Zelensky should accept this deal. It is in the Ukraine's interest. Later conditions will be worse," the expert cautioned.
According to him, these terms "allow Kiev to continue building a political and economic (if not a security) relationship with the West." The expert noted "that it clearly opens the door for their EU accession." In his opinion, Ukraine’s EU membership "would mean a catastrophe for the EU." "Now, Hungary will do all in our power to prevent their EU accession, but that is us - we do not sit at that table," Koskovics pointed out.
As Russian President Vladimir Putin said on August 1, Moscow’s main goal is to root out the causes of the crisis in Ukraine and ensure Russia’s security. He emphasized that Moscow is ready to wait if Kiev believes that now is not the time for negotiations. As Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in an interview with VGTRK journalist Pavel Zarubin on July 20, Russia is ready to make rapid progress on the Ukrainian settlement, but the main thing for Moscow is to achieve its goals. The speed of the process depends not only on Russia, he added.