Ukrainian and Hungarian foreign ministers agree to meet to discuss bilateral relations

Reaffirming full and unequivocal committment to the EU membership perspective of Ukraine, we call for accelerating the accession process,

the message reads

Ukraine has shown a remarkable reform progress — now it is time for us to mobilize the efforts to help Ukraine make this happen,

the letter reads

Andrii Sybihaforeign Minister

We agreed to hold a separate bilateral meeting soon to have a thorough discussion of all issues on our agenda,

Sybiha tweeted

In these circumstances, the unanimity requirement is an obstacle. We need all member states to agree. The Commission has given its assessment, and we believe we can open the first cluster. But now we need the agreement of all member states,

Guillaume Mercier concluded

Adam Szłapkaeuropean Affairs

We hope that this (opening of clusters in negotiations with Ukraine) will be a process based on achievements and should be based on arguments, not on political issues,

Adam Szłapka expressed hope

Enlargement will remain a priority for this Commission. For Ukraine, we opened the accession process in June 2024. This was a recognition of Ukraine's determination to move forward with its EU path and implement transformational reforms, despite the ongoing aggressive war by Russia. Until now, Ukraine has been making steady progress towards EU membership,

European Commission spokesman Guillaume Mercier said at a briefing on 18 March

So we are ready to work on that, but we need unanimity, unfortunately,

the Polish minister stated

It is very unlikely that we will find a new 27 consensus on any text. I think it is most likely that the scenario on March 6 will be repeated, where the conclusions will only refer to a discussion on Ukraine, and there will be another text supported by a strong majority of EU member states,

Bóka emphasised

The part on Ukraine, in several points, is against the strategic interests and the strategic vision of Hungary on how to create a new European security architecture,

he added

I would like to ask the Polish opposition what they think about this initiative, whether it serves Polish interests to have the European Union paralysed, reduced to a group of mutual discussions,

the Polish minister asked

I have to make a ritual appeal to the Polish opposition, which maintains close ideological contacts with the government and the party of Viktor Orbán, to do something good for Poland and Europe – namely, to convince their ideological brothers to unblock these issues,

the Polish foreign minister said

The European Council calls on Russia to demonstrate a true political will to end the war,

the draft conclusions of the EU summit read, as quoted by the news agency

Yes, this is correct, such a conversation is being prepared for Tuesday."

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said

All powers of peace will take part of this effort jointly. It is in this spirit that we will continue to maintain our support to Ukraine and continue to demand some clear commitments from Russia."

He added

It would be a long-term commitment, we are talking about years. As long as it takes to preserve a peace deal and deter Russia."

They told The Times

What does the Hungarian nation demand from Brussels? Let there be peace, freedom, and unity

He wrote on X ... before giving his 12 demands

We never do that, we don't get ahead of ourselves."

However, he did not release any more details, saying

Do not obstruct our national guard from protecting our borders. Do not bring in migrants, and remove those who have arrived illegally."

One of them was

We will be talking about land. We will be talking about power plants … we have a lot of it already discussed very much by both sides, Ukraine and Russia."

He said