Russia sides with Hungary, calls on NATO to put pressure on Ukraine
The Russian Federation requested the North Atlantic Alliance to put pressure on Ukraine following the country’s changes to provisions of the law “on education”, Evropeyska Pravda reports with reference to a source in the NATO headquarters who commented on a meeting of the NATO-Russia council which took place in Brussels in May.
Russia claims that one of the members of NATO, namely Hungary, is not satisfied with the Ukrainian law. Budapest has blocked ministerial meetings of the Ukraine-NATO Council, demanding that Kyiv stops implementation of the language provisions of the law “on education,” which have been in place since last year.
Hungary disassociated itself from Russia’s position regarding this issue, the Alliance notes.
The press-service of NATO refused to officially comment on whether this issue was discussed during the meeting of the NATO-Russia Council and confirmed only that the situation in Ukraine was one of the topics of discussion.
The interlocutor of Evropeyska Pravda noted that earlier, Russia also appealed to the Alliance in this regard.
Allegedly, in the letter to the NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, the Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sergey Lavrov, insisted that it is necessary to put pressure on Ukraine.
“There is no reaction from the Alliance [regarding the laws adopted by Ukraine],” Lavrov explained. “The Alliance’s position encourages Ukraine’s failure to fulfill its obligations.”
Earlier, NATO refused to put pressure on Kyiv regarding the change of the law “on education,” despite Hungary’s demands. NATO supported Ukraine’s ongoing educational reform.
“Ukraine has introduced serious reforms…in such areas as healthcare, education and well-being of the population,” the Alliance’s commentary stated. “It is important that Ukraine is able to move towards reform.”
Meanwhile, there have been recent signals from Budapest regarding a possible resumption of dialogue with Ukraine.