Russia's goal is to control Europe for financial gain — analyst

Volodymyr Horbach, political analyst at the Institute for Euro-Atlantic Cooperation and an expert on Ukraine's foreign and domestic policy, stated this on Espreso TV.

"About 15 years ago, the Russians believed that Ukraine would never get close to the prospect of EU membership. It was supposedly a very distant prospect that, they said, was not worth seriously discussing.

But since 2014, this prospect has become realistic, and in 2022, a political decision was effectively made on this matter. Therefore, now the Russians, of course, also oppose Ukraine's membership in the EU," noted Horbach.

According to the expert on foreign and domestic policy, the West has not yet fully realized what Russia wants and what it is striving for. The Russian Federation wants to control Europe and profit from it.

"Just as Donald Trump has been saying recently: 'Europeans, we are protecting you, so you have to pay us.' The same model could exist for the Russian Federation: we control you by force of arms, you are not able to resist us - so pay up. This might be formalized in the form of payments for energy resources or for something else, but it is precisely about forceful control over the territory.

But to imagine a situation in which Ukraine is a member of the European Union but is under the forceful control of the RF – that is simply incredible," Horbach added.

• The Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada, Ruslan Stefanchuk, named European integration as the primary vector for the state, emphasizing the importance of defending national interests in the future, united within the EU.