The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine has responded to the statements made by Viktor Orbán, Prime Minister of Hungary, about the unrealistic expectations concerning Ukraine’s accession to the EU. Orbán claimed Ukraine’s EU membership is unrealistic while the war is ongoing and its area and population are unknown.

"We remark with positivity that the Hungarian Prime Minister is worried about Ukraine’s accession to the EU. We are informing him that Ukraine has not changed its territory within the internationally recognised borders," said Oleh Nikolenko, spokesperson for Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry.

Viktor Orbán stated that the EU would need to "answer really long and complex questions until the moment when it will be possible to at least adopt a decision about the start of the negotiations" about Ukraine’s accession to the EU.

"When we discuss the future of Ukraine in Brussels in the fall, we will not be able to avoid the question of whether we can seriously think about the membership of such a country. Would it be possible to start negotiations with a country at war?" the Hungarian Prime Minister stated.

"We do not understand what the territory of this country is because it is still fighting, and we don't know what its population is because this population is leaving... Accepting a country (to the EU – ed.) without knowing its parameters would be unprecedented," Orbán stated.

Earlier, Olha Stefanishyna, Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration of Ukraine, stated that unresolved territorial issues had never been an obstacle in Ukraine’s European integration process and would not be in the future.