MEPs call to strip Hungary’s EU voting rights amid Orbán’s ‘peace missions’ to Russia and China. From basement to battlefield: Ukrainian startups create low-cost robots to fight Russia. A majority of Ukrainians (66 per cent) believe that their country can beat Russia on the battlefield, a survey finds.
MEPs call to strip Hungary’s EU voting rights amid Orbán’s ‘peace missions’ to Russia, China
Members of the European Parliament demanded Hungary’s EU voting rights be stripped after its Prime Minister’s trips to Russia and China.
In a letter obtained by POLITICO, 63 MEPs addressed European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, European Council President Charles Michel and European Parliament chief Roberta Metsola, saying Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán “has already caused significant damage by exploiting and abusing the role of the Council Presidency.”
Hungary took over the rotating Council of the EU presidency from Belgium on 1 July. Since then, Orbán has launched self-declared “peace missions” to Kyiv, Moscow, Beijing and Washington and claimed, without authorization, to be representing the EU.
Orbán “undertook several diplomatic visits, notably to visit Putin in Russia and Xi Jinping in China, during which he intentionally misrepresented his empowerments,” the lawmakers wrote, and called on the Parliament to respond accordingly.
“This requires real actions, such as suspending Hungary’s voting rights in the Council, since practice has shown that mere verbal condemnations of this situation have no effect,” the MEPs added.
The Commission also asked its commissioners not to attend Hungary’s informal ministers’ meetings, it announced Monday.
Viktor Orbán visited Ukraine on July 2, having just taken over as rotating president of the European Union. This was his first visit to the country in 12 years. While in Kyiv he met with President Zelenskyi and said he had raised the idea of a ceasefire to hasten negotiations with Russia.
“I informed Mr. President that his plans require a significant amount of time due to international diplomatic rules. So I advised Mr. President to consider doing something a bit differently: halt the fire, and then engage with Russia, because a ceasefire would speed the pace of these negotiations,” Orbán said, as quoted by the European Pravda.
Commenting on Orbán’s plea for a quick ceasefire, Deputy Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, Ihor Zhovkva, speaking on national television, said that Hungary was “not the first country offering such a scenario.” Zelenskyi has actually rejected the proposals — he listened to what Orbán had to say, but in response presented his position that is “firm, clear, and widely known,” he added.
Orbán visited Moscow on July 5. Charles Michel, the chair of the European Council, told the Hungarian premier he had no EU mandate for talks on the war.
On July 8, Orbán made a visit to China to discuss prospects for a peaceful settlement in Ukraine.
On July 10, Orbán met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Washington. Orban asked him to support his peace initiative.
On July 11, Orbán met with Donald Trump and the pair discussed the “possibilities of peace,” a spokesperson for the prime minister said. Following his “peace mission”, Orbán sent a letter to European Council president, Charles Michel, calling on the EU, among other things, to restore diplomatic ties with Russia.
From basement to battlefield: Ukrainian startups create low-cost robots to fight Russia
Hundreds of Ukrainian startups inside the country are working to create machines to carry out battlefield tasks, from mine clearance and automated evacuations of the wounded to simply carrying a soldier’s equipment, according to the AP.
An ecosystem of laboratories in hundreds of secret workshops is leveraging innovation to create a robot army that Ukraine hopes will kill Russian troops and save its own wounded soldiers and civilians.
Defense startups across Ukraine — about 250 according to industry estimates — are creating the killing machines at secret locations that typically look like rural car repair shops.
Employees at a startup run by entrepreneur Andrii Denysenko can put together an unmanned ground vehicle called the Odyssey in four days at a shed used by the company. Its most important feature is the price tag: $35,000, or roughly 10% of the cost of an imported model.
The 800-kilogram (1,750-pound) prototype that looks like a small, turretless tank with its wheels on tracks can travel up to 30 kilometers (18.5 miles) on one charge of a battery the size of a small beer cooler.
The prototype acts as a rescue-and-supply platform but can be modified to carry a remotely operated heavy machine gun or sling mine-clearing charges.
Denysenko’s company is working on projects including a motorized exoskeleton that would boost a soldier’s strength and carrier vehicles to transport a soldier’s equipment and even help them up an incline.
On March 12, 2024, Ukraine’s Vice Prime Minister for Innovations, Development of Education, Science and Technology — Minister of Digital Transformation, Mykhailo Fedorov announced that Ukraine begins mass production of versatile ground robotic platforms for frontline missions. These platforms are designed to fulfill a range of tasks, including destroying enemy positions and equipment, laying and clearing mines, evacuating the wounded, and transporting ammunition.
“These robots have proved to be a success on testing ground. Hundreds of platforms of various types will be purchased through the UNITED24 initiative,” Fedorov said.
On April 2, Fedorov said Ukrainian troops blew up a bridge in the village of Ivanivske, near Bakhmut in Donetsk region with a Ratel S kamikaze ground robot, complicating supplies of Russian forces. He also posted a video of the incident to social media.
Majority of Ukrainians believe their country can beat Russia on battlefield, survey finds
Some 65.6 per cent of Ukrainians believe that Ukraine can beat Russia on the battlefield, a poll commissioned by the ZN.UA Ukrainian newspaper and conducted by the Razumkov Center found. Sixteen per cent oppose the idea, and 18 per cent were undecided.
Respondents in the west (69 per cent) showed more confidence in the statement. One-in-four Ukrainians (25 per cent) in the south do not believe Ukraine can win militarily. Some 16 per cent across the country do not believe Ukraine can prevail against Russia.
Half of Ukrainians (51 per cent) say the victory will be seeing Russian forces withdrawn from all of Ukraine and its 1991 borders restored. Twenty-six per cent say that winning the war means regaining the land that Russia has conquered from Ukraine since 2022. Nine per cent are willing to cede all territories seized by Russia, cementing actual front lines the moment a deal is signed.
Some 43.9 per cent of Ukrainians think that it is time for official peace negotiations with Russia to begin, according to the chapters of the survey earlier published by the newspaper. At the same time, an overwhelming majority of respondents (83 per cent) said they were opposed to the current ceasefire conditions offered by Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
How Russian propaganda targets Ukraine’s European integration in Poland. Ukraine in Flames #638
In 2022 and 2023, Polish media were and remain in first place among European countries in terms of the number of fakes sent by Russia. Currently, the focus of these messages is the claim that Poles do not have enough resources to provide good social assistance because everything is going to the Ukrainians. Additionally, Russian media portray Ukrainian refugees as an uncultured group that does not respect Poles. There have also been messages claiming that the defeat of Ukraine is obvious and predictable and that all resources spent on Ukraine are actually wasted, so they should not be provided. Watch Ukraine in Flames #638 to find out about the main pro-Russian narratives and disinformation actors after February 24, 2022, in the information space of Poland and assess Russia’s ability to undermine support for the idea of European integration of Ukraine in Poland through informational means.
Guests:
- Maciej Makulski, Contributing Editor with the New Eastern Europe magazine (Poland)
- Julian Dobrowolski, INFO OPS Poland Foundation (Poland)