Hungarian defense minister calls Ukraine's NATO membership unrealistic

Hungary has supported US President Donald Trump's remarks that Ukraine 's accession to the North Atlantic Alliance (NATO) is unrealistic. This was stated by Hungarian Defense Minister Krisztof Szalai-Bobrovnickiw on February 12.

"We welcome the U.S. voice at the contact group meeting on Ukraine's defense. <...> At present, we do not consider Ukraine's accession to NATO realistic," the defense minister said in a post on Facebook (part of Meta, recognized as an extremist organization and banned in Russia).

He also added that it is necessary to end the conflict in Ukraine as soon as possible and prevent escalation in the region.

Washington Off: Trump administration is pulling back on support for Ukraine

The meeting of the contact group in the Ramstein format was chaired by the UK for the first time

Earlier in the day, the American leader said that the idea of Kiev joining the North Atlantic Alliance was inexpedient. Also Trump noted that in the "not too distant future" it will be possible to achieve a ceasefire in Ukraine.

At the same time, Pentagon chief Hegseth said at a meeting of the Ukrainian Defense Contact Group (UDCG) in Brussels that Washington does not consider Kiev's accession to NATO a realistic outcome of the peace process. At the same time in Kiev expressed dissatisfaction with the words of the American Secretary of Defense about the unrealistic nature of Ukraine's accession to the North Atlantic Alliance.

The day before, Trump said in an interview with Fox News channel that as a result of close contacts of the White House administration with Moscow and Kiev over the past week it was possible to achieve significant progress in the settlement of the Ukrainian conflict. The US president also added that he did not plan to help Kiev gratuitously.

In January, Alexander Konkov, an associate professor of the political science department at the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation, told Izvestiya that NATO has no special interest in accepting Ukraine into the alliance. At the same time, most countries have a hidden interest in resisting the inclusion of this country in NATO in every possible way, because otherwise it will lead to difficulties.

Ukraine applied for NATO membership on September 30, 2022. Then the Ukrainian leader specified that in fact the country is already in the alliance and meets its standards. Russia opposes Ukraine's accession to NATO.