Arakhamiia explained the success of right-wing parties in the European elections: «Isolationist sentiments, people say — you should not get into other people's wars»

David Arakhamiia, head of the Servant of the People faction, commented on the success of right-wing parties in the recent elections to the European Parliament, noting that this was expected due to the growth of isolationist attitudes in the society of European countries.

He expressed this position in a comment to a NikVesti correspondent during the Ukraine Recovery Conference in Berlin.

As you know, elections to the European Parliament were held from June 6 to 9. In these elections, political forces received varying degrees of support from voters across Europe. The pro-European and pro-Ukrainian «European People's Party» and the center-left «Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats» won the most seats in the EU legislative body. However, the elections showed an increase in support for right-wing and far-right parties in several countries, such as France, Hungary, Italy, Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands.

According to David Arakhamiia, this was not a surprise, because historically, in conditions of security threats, right-wing forces have more chances to come to power. The success of right-wing parties and isolationist attitudes can complicate international support for Ukraine and delay the end of the war.

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«We talked about it a year ago, because when security factors come to the fore, historical statistics show that right-wing forces come to power more because they support isolationist sentiments. And they say that we don't need to get into other people's wars and conflicts, and we need to fight for our own. And that is why we will have problematic situations,» said the People's Deputy.

In addition, he expressed his expectations for the peace summit, which will soon be held in Switzerland. Arakhamiia emphasized that this will be a founding summit aimed at preparing for further negotiations, where all stakeholders will be involved, including international mediators.

«From the peace summit, in the first place, after all, the constituent summit. We expect, of course, preparations for the second one, where all parties will be involved, including the aggressor (Russia, note), so that different solutions are already waiting there,» emphasized David Arakhamiia.

He also stated that he does not regret ending the negotiations with the Russian Federation in Istanbul in March 2022, where he was the head of the Ukrainian delegation.

Then, as a result of those negotiations, «peace treaty proposals» were made public. Its main provisions are the neutral status of Ukraine and the «suspended status» of the occupied Crimea and part of Donbas. According to David Arakhamiia, the Ukrainian delegation had many questions at the time, for which they did not receive any security guarantees.

«No, I'm not sorry. There was such a situation that it was impossible, given the fact that there are many issues for which guarantees could not be given. We will continue to see how it will all work,» said David Arakhamiia.

Negotiations in Istanbul in 2022

Negotiations between Ukraine and Russia in Istanbul started on March 10, 2022. Then the head of the Ukrainian delegation, David Arakhamiia, met with the head of the delegation from the Russian Federation, former Minister of Culture and Vladimir Putin's assistant, Volodymyr Medynskyi. After a round of negotiations, the representative of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation announced the partial withdrawal of the Russian military from Kyiv and Chernihiv. Also at that time, the Russian side announced Putin's readiness to meet with Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the event of a peace treaty. However, the contract was not signed.

The representative of the Russian side Volodymyr Medynskyi and David Arahamia, Istanbul, 2022

A number of politicians and political scientists believed that Ukraine then lost a chance to end the war.

In November 2023, David Arakhamiia said that during the negotiations, the Russians promised to withdraw troops in exchange for Ukraine's refusal to join NATO. However, the Ukrainian side did not agree to this, as it was not sure that the Russian Federation would really withdraw from the territory of Ukraine.

The head of the Ukrainian delegation also stated in an interview with the 1+1 TV channel that this decision was influenced by British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who insisted on the continuation of the war:

«When we returned from Istanbul, Boris Johnson came to Kyiv and said that we will not sign anything with them at all — and let's just fight.»

Vladimir Putin with the peace agreement document allegedly signed by the Ukrainian side, photo: KREMLIN.RU

In May 2024, Russian President Vladimir Putin once again spoke about negotiations with Ukraine and said that they had never given up on them. He stated that Russia is ready to negotiate on the basis of the «Istanbul agreements».