Hungary opposes the start of negotiations on Ukraine’s accession to the EU, but Germany supports Ukraine’s European integration.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban believes negotiations on Ukraine’s membership should not begin. “This is Hungary’s clear position,” he said, adding that Brussels “owes money” to Budapest.

According to him, the dispute between the EU and Hungary regarding billions of euros in funds for Budapest that Brussels has frozen, is not related to Hungary’s support for negotiations on Ukraine’s accession to the EU. The Hungarian leader expressed his belief that Ukraine is not ready to negotiate on EU membership, saying, “Kyiv is far from the EU.”

At the same time, the First Deputy Spokesperson of the German government, Christine Hoffmann, said that Berlin considers Ukraine’s steps on its way to European integration to be amazing.

“The federal government sees that Ukraine has shown great determination in implementing reforms. Ukraine deserves our recognition, and we will consider this when evaluating the European Commission’s report,” she said.