Russia Cannot Match West's 'Positive' Offer to Ukraine, State TV Guest Says

A guest on Russian state television program was slapped down by the show's host after saying that Moscow had far less to offer those living in occupied regions of Ukraine than the EU and NATO.

The comments on the NTV channel by political commentator Viktor Olevich follow the decision by the European Commission that accession talks should start for Kyiv to join the EU, pending agreement from other members, four months after being granted candidacy status in June. Newsweek has contacted the Kremlin by email for comment.

Olha Stefanishyna, Ukraine's deputy prime minister for European integration, said last week that Kyiv should be able to complete the process of joining the EU within two years, having already fulfilled four of the seven criteria required to begin talks.

The Kremlin has pitched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine as a proxy battle between Moscow and the West and a fight to keep Kyiv within its orbit. But Olevich said that residents in regions Russia says it has annexed would be far more attracted to what EU membership would provide.

"There's a carrot the West offers to Ukraine," Olevich told Mesto Vstrechi (Meeting Place). "The carrot is entry into the EU and NATO, some time in an uncertain future. It gives them the prospect of living, maybe not like the Germans or the French but at least like Eastern Europeans, like the Slovaks, Czechs," Olevich said, in the clip posted by pro-Ukrainian X (formerly Twitter) account Victoria. "For Ukrainians, of course, it is a positive prospect," he added.

"What carrot does Russia offer? 10,000 roubles ($108) to people who live in the Kherson region? The prospect of being unable to travel without a visa ever? That they won't be. able to go anywhere and won't see millions of their relatives in Europe?" Olevich said

The anchor Andrei Norkin interrupted, rejecting his guest's claims, saying that "we won't compare how poorly people live in Russia and how well they do in Europe," before adding, "because your statement is untrue."

As one of the three state TV channels, NTV is subject to government control. However, Mesto Vstrechi does sometimes have dissenting voices, presents less-strident pro-Kremlin rhetoric and has opposition figures regularly appearing as guests.

Olevich's reference to NATO followed Vladimir Putin's railing against the encroachment on Russian borders of the alliance, which has in fact increased in size, following the accession of Finland.

While Kyiv's membership of the alliance is off the table in the short term, last week its former Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Ukraine could join. However, he added that "collective self-defense" under Article 5 of its charter would not be extended to the Russian-occupied territories, U.K. newspaper The Guardian reported.

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