Brussels 22.07.2024 While entering the Foreign affairs Council meeting the EU top diplomat Josep Borrell said, that there are two main topics related to Ukraine to discuss: how to avoid the complete destruction of the electricity system, when 70% of the power generation capacity in Ukraine has been destroyed, and how approach the winter 2024-25 in this context.

“..I will call the Member States to provide more support to rebuild and substitute the electricity grid [to ensure] more power generation.
“And the second one is air defence. Just immediately after the visit of Prime Minister [of Hungary, Viktor] Orbán to Kyiv, and to Putin in Moscow, a children’s hospital was destroyed, hit by Russian rockets creating a lot of casualties among children in this hospital.
“So, more air defence and more electricity generation capacity. These are the two calls the Member States will have to look at.

Further he confirmed that the other issues would be discussed concerning the ongoing war in Ukraine.
“We will listen to Minister [for Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Dmytro] Kuleba. Then, I will call for a restricted session – Ministers only – in order to discuss what has happened during the last weeks from the visits to Moscow, to Kyiv and to Beijing , from Prime Minister [of Hungary, Viktor] Orbán, [to] the speeches at the United Nations Security Council [by] his Foreign Minister [Péter Szijjártó], accusing the European Union to be the Union that pushes for war”.

“This is completely unacceptable. The European Union is supporting Ukraine and willing to finish this war on the basis of the United Nations Charter. We will discuss about how Member States evaluate this position by a country which is, at the same time, at the rotating presidency of the [Council of] the European Union”.

“The European Union is not pushing for war; it is not in the war side; it is in the war defending Ukraine in front of an aggression”.

Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó held talks with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov in New York on July 16, during which the two sides discussed the war in Ukraine and bilateral cooperation.

After his meeting with Sergey Lavrov, the Minister told journalists that Hungary has been living in the shadow of the war in Ukraine for two and a half years now, and is directly experiencing its negative consequences. He added that the West’s strategy seemed to have failed.
“The situation on the battlefield has not turned out as the Europeans and the Americans had hoped, despite the arms deliveries and sanctions,” he continued. “Therefore a new strategy is needed. If there is no solution on the battlefield, the solution must be found at the negotiating table”.