{"id":20180,"date":"2026-04-22T13:43:35","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T13:43:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/20180\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T13:43:35","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T13:43:35","slug":"emboldened-zelensky-to-pressure-eu-leaders-for-membership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/20180\/","title":{"rendered":"Emboldened Zelensky to pressure EU leaders for membership"},"content":{"rendered":"

Volodymyr Zelensky<\/a> is poised to make a surprise appearance at a European Union summit to demand progress on Ukraine\u2019s membership application.<\/p>\n

The Ukrainian president is seeking to capitalise on the electoral defeat<\/a> of Hungary\u2019s Viktor Orb\u00e1n, the bloc\u2019s leading Kremlin ally.<\/p>\n

Mr Zelensky will arrive in Cyprus seeking concessions from his EU counterparts after capitulating to demands from Brussels to resume flows of Russian oil to central Europe in order to unblock a \u20ac90bn (\u00a378bn) loan<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Mr<\/p>\n

Mr Zelensky agreed to resume flows of Russian oil to central Europe in order to unblock a \u20ac90bn (\u00a378bn) loan – TETIANA DZHAFAROVA<\/p>\n

He had been scheduled to join an informal leaders\u2019 dinner in Nicosia via video link, but officials now believe he is planning to attend in person on Thursday.<\/p>\n

The last-minute decision to make the trip was first reported by the Financial Times.<\/p>\n

Mr Zelensky travels outside Ukraine when he sees an opportunity to secure fresh backing for his country\u2019s war efforts.<\/p>\n

He is also trying to push Ukraine back up the global agenda with most countries now more engaged with Donald Trump\u2019s war on Iran<\/a> and rising energy prices.<\/p>\n

European leaders are expected to finalise a loan to Kyiv<\/a> on Wednesday after Mr Orb\u00e1n agreed to drop his long-standing veto over the scheme.<\/p>\n

\"2204<\/p>\n

2204 EU loan breakdown<\/p>\n

The outgoing Hungarian prime minister had been blocking the scheme until Ukraine agreed to resume flows of Russian oil to his country through the Druzhba pipeline<\/a>, which was taken offline earlier this year following a Russian strike.<\/p>\n

After mounting pressure from Brussels, Mr Zelensky relented and agreed to have a pumping station repaired to allow deliveries of crude to be restarted.<\/p>\n

Kyiv informed MOL Group, a Hungarian oil and gas company, on Wednesday that flows would resume through the pipeline within hours.<\/p>\n

An EU diplomat told The Telegraph the loan would be signed off \u201cwhenever oil starts flowing\u201d.<\/p>\n

Mr Zelensky will then seek to capitalise on the decision. The Telegraph understands he will probably demand that Brussels formally opens negotiations about Ukraine\u2019s accession to the bloc.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is entirely fair to open negotiation clusters on our EU membership \u2013 technically, Ukraine is already fully prepared,\u201d Mr Zelensky said on Tuesday, after speaking with Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission\u2019s president.<\/p>\n

He was referring to the technical process also being blocked by Hungary under the leadership of Mr Orb\u00e1n<\/a>.<\/p>\n

While Peter Magyar<\/a>, Hungary\u2019s incoming prime minister, is unlikely to drop every one of his predecessor\u2019s anti-Ukraine policies, he will attempt to reset relations with Kyiv.<\/p>\n

\"Peter<\/p>\n

Peter Magyar, Hungary\u2019s incoming prime minister, will attempt to reset relations with Kyiv – Denes Erdos\/The Associated Press<\/p>\n

Mr Zelensky wants to secure fast-tracked accession to the EU as part of the membership talks.<\/p>\n

However, this plan was rejected by a growing number of member states, including some of Ukraine\u2019s most ardent supporters.<\/p>\n

Instead, France and Germany<\/a> are proposing an \u201cassociate membership\u201d, which will grant Kyiv access to key meetings but not afford it voting rights or certain funding.<\/p>\n

Andrii Sybiha, Ukraine\u2019s foreign minister, rejected the idea his country would accept partial membership as part of a pre-accession deal.<\/p>\n

\u201c[The] position is clear: no \u2018ersatz membership\u2019 \u2013 we will not accept any of them. This is a firm position,\u201d he said on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt seems to me that our partners understand this, they understand our position. And let\u2019s focus on the requirements we need to meet on our way to EU membership, adhering to the criteria.\u201d<\/p>\n

Try full access to The Telegraph free today. Unlock their award-winning website and essential news app, plus useful tools and expert guides for your money, health and holidays.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Volodymyr Zelensky is poised to make a surprise appearance at a European Union summit to demand progress on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20181,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[39,14600,40,3729,58,1966,1401,28,14599,64,5471],"class_list":{"0":"post-20180","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-eu","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-eu-membership","10":"tag-european-union","11":"tag-hungarian-prime-minister","12":"tag-hungary","13":"tag-kyiv","14":"tag-russian-oil","15":"tag-ukraine","16":"tag-ukrainian-president","17":"tag-viktor-orban","18":"tag-volodymyr-zelensky"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20180"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20180\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}