President Volodymyr Zelensky stated that Ukraine will not accept a second-tier status in the European Union and must be treated as a full member of the bloc once it is invited, writes kyivindependent.com.

“If we speak about the EU membership, it has to be fully fledged (…) you cannot be semi-or demi-member of the European Union”, Zelensky said in at an Euronews enlargement summit, speaking from near wartorn Pokrovsk. “It seems to me that it is very important that we have at the same table equal countries”.

Zelensky said he had traveled to the front line to support Ukrainian soldiers: “They are at war not only for their own families… but for the Ukrainian future, he future of Ukraine in the European Union”. He dismissed the idea of offering concessions to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán in exchange for lifting Budapest"s veto to Ukraine’s EU bid: “I’m not sure that Ukraine has to bargain with its own values (…) I don’t think that I have to offer something to Viktor Orbán. I think that (he) has to offer something for Ukraine, which is protecting the whole of Europe from Russia… Blocking Ukraine’s EU membership would be very specific support of (…) (Vladimir) Putin”.

Zelensky refused to comment on the upcoming Hungarian parliamentary elections next spring, and insisted diplomacy was not about “personalities”: “We’re at war for our survival. We would really like the prime minister of Hungary to support us, at least not block us, if we do everything to open the clusters”.