Budapest calls Paris summit a gathering of opponents of peace in Ukraine

Among the announced participants in the emergency summit of the European Union (EU) countries in Paris are those countries that have been actively pouring "oil on the fire" all three years of the conflict to prevent peace in Ukraine, Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said on 17 February. This was stated by Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó on February 17.

He added that their position has not changed so far, and the EU countries intend to continue to put sticks in the wheels of those who have long wanted to end hostilities.

"Today in Paris, exactly those who have been constantly pouring oil on the fire of <military operation> in Ukraine for the past three years are meeting. <...> These are the countries that have constantly increased escalation," Sijjarto said during a visit to Kazakhstan.

He added that the participants of the meeting are also in favor of continuing Europe's misguided sanctions strategy against Russia.

"In Paris, the parties that are against peace, against [ US President Donald] Trump, are united. They also want to do everything possible to prevent a peaceful resolution of the conflict in Ukraine," he said following talks with Kazakhstan's Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Murat Nurtleu.

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Earlier in the day, the French newspaper Le Monde reported that a number of European leaders had gathered in Paris at the initiative of French President Emmanuel Macron for an emergency meeting in connection with the US approach to the Ukrainian settlement. At the same time, several countries, including Romania, the Czech Republic and Slovenia, said that they were disappointed that they had not been invited.

In his turn, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that the participation of representatives of the EU countries in the upcoming talks on Ukraine between Russia and the USA in the Saudi capital seemed useless in the light of the current situation, as they had repeatedly shown that they did not intend to change their position on the conflict.

Before that, on February 16, Czech President Pavel considered the development of a Marshall Plan for Ukraine an excellent idea. The Marshall Plan was a set of aid measures that the USA provided to Europe after the Second World War. The support was named after the name of its author - American Secretary of State George C. Marshall, who held the post from 1947-1949.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on 15 February that Europe needed its own action plan on Ukraine, otherwise the future of the EU would be decided by other global players, not necessarily in its interests.