‘This is The Sovereign Right of Any Country’ – Kremlin Acknowledges Ukraine’s Right to Join EU

The Kremlin has stated that Ukraine has the right to join the European Union, as the bloc is not a military alliance.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told journalists on Tuesday, Feb. 18, that Ukraine’s EU membership is its “sovereign right.”

“This is the sovereign right of any country. No one can dictate such decisions, and we are not going to,” Peskov stated, as quoted by TASS.

At the same time, Putin’s spokesperson reiterated that Russia holds a different stance when it comes to military alliances, including NATO. “That’s a separate issue, and everyone knows our position on it,” he added.

Ukraine officially applied to join the EU on Feb. 28, 2022. Many European leaders have expressed support, and on Dec. 14, 2023, the EU Council agreed to start membership talks.

However, Hungary has blocked progress on the negotiations last week. On Feb. 16, on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister for European Integration Olga Stefanyshyna revealed that Budapest had prevented further steps in the process at the end of last week.

“While we are talking here, one member state is blocking Ukraine’s accession process to the EU - it happened just yesterday,” she said at a Ukrainian lunch at the MSC.

Since the EU requires unanimous approval to move forward, Ukraine’s membership discussions remain at an impasse.

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Hungary has called for additional conditions before negotiations proceed. The EU accession process typically requires candidate countries to agree on two key “roadmaps” –  one covering the rule of law and human rights, and another on public administration reform.

Hungary, however, has demanded a third requirement: a plan for the protection of national minorities.

As a result, Ukraine’s EU negotiations are currently stalled. No further progress can be made until the issue is resolved, and it remains unclear how long the delay will last.

Moscow’s active opposition to Kyiv pursuing EU membership began in 2014 when it annexed Crimea and supported armed pro-Russian separatists in the east after a pro-EU revolution ousted Ukraine’s Moscow-friendly leader, Viktor Yanukovych.

The November 2013 announcement by Yanukovych that his government would abandon an EU association agreement in favor of membership in the Kremlin’s Customs Union sparked the protests of the Maidan Revolution. Eleven years ago this week Yanukovych fled to Russia where the former Ukrainian president remains in exile.