{"id":2791,"date":"2026-10-20T15:53:32","date_gmt":"2026-10-20T19:53:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/eetn\/?p=2791"},"modified":"2026-10-20T15:53:32","modified_gmt":"2026-10-20T19:53:32","slug":"carpathian-eight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/eetn\/2026\/carpathian-eight\/","title":{"rendered":"Carpathian Eight, Stability Before Peace"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n Carpathian Eight, Stability Before Peace\n <\/h1>\n \n \n \n\n

By Ilija Nikolic<\/p>\n\n\n <\/header>\n\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n

On September 18, 2026, with war raging in the East, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy hosted European leaders at a ski resort in the Carpathians to launch a new regional club with like-minded partners. The Carpathian Eight<\/a> (C8), launched in Bukovel, is meant to serve as a framework for cooperation in sectors such as logistics, security, and energy, as well as other cross-border economic interests. <\/a>Zelenskyy stated that more than 50 agreements<\/a> valued over \u20ac1 billion had been prepared for signing, with about half of the region’s investment portfolio in energy. He also argued that the Carpathians, as a region<\/a>, could become an energy supplier for the European Union (EU) rather than simply a transit region. It would appear that Kyiv is not waiting for the war to end before attempting to shape what comes after.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This expansive view of the region’s potential is not new. The Carpathian Convention in 2003<\/a> brought together Czechia, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, and Ukraine around sustainable development and environmental protection. In contrast, the Carpathian Eight shifts that framing<\/a> toward more war-related purposes and now includes Austria and EU adding institutions, while otherwise recasting the regional corridor for other purposes including energy, trade, and military mobility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Leaders
Leaders and representatives at the Carpathian Eight summit, September 18, 2026. (Image via Office of the President of Ukraine: <\/em>https:\/\/www.president.gov.ua\/en\/photos\/uchast-prezidenta-ukrayini-v-pershomu-zasidanni-karpatskogo-8237<\/em><\/a>)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, the group that convened in Bukovel is rather mixed. For example<\/a>, Poland and Romania have consistently supported Ukraine, while Hungary, Serbia, and Slovakia have refused to provide military aid. The guest list speaks for itself, as Poland, Romania, and Serbia each sent heads of state or government. Whereas Czechia and Austria sent parliamentary figures, and Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico cancelled<\/a>, citing an illness. Notably, a Hungarian flag was absent<\/a> during Zelenskyy’s opening speech, and by the end, only six states signed the summit declaration (Hungary and Czechia abstained).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This “mixed bag” of attendance was by design<\/a>. When the initiative was first announced by Zelenskyy in August 2026, he pitched it as a new opportunity for cooperation, even with neighbours unwilling or hesitant to arm or provide resources to Ukraine. A loose format allows reluctant governments to show up without necessarily picking a side, limiting Russia’s overall ability to exploit tensions between Ukraine and itsneighbours. The more these governments cooperate, the costlier it becomes to walk away in the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Serbia is an example of this mechanism flowing in the right direction. Belgrade has still refrained from sanctioning Russia, and Moscow still supplies the majority of its gas imports. Yet President Aleksandar Vu\u010di\u0107 attended the meeting in person, just weeks after hosting Zelenskyy in Belgrade. Following Zelenskyy’s visit, Political Scientist Aleksandar \u00d0oki\u0107<\/a> told Kyiv Independent that the visit both served as “another blow to Russia” and allowed Vu\u010di\u0107 to signal alignment with Europe’s policy on Ukraine and potentially advance Serbia’s bid for EU accession<\/a>. Kosovo tends to be read as the lever that Moscow possesses over Belgrade, however, Kyiv does not recognize Kosovo, partly because Russia cited the Kosovo Precedent<\/a>\u00a0to justify the annexation of Crimea, the<\/a> two capitals share a position on territorial integrity<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Photos
Vu\u010di\u0107 welcomes Zelenskyy to Belgrade on August 8, 2026. First official visit by a Ukrainian head of state since 2018. (Image via Office of the President of Ukraine: <\/em>https:\/\/www.president.gov.ua\/en\/photos\/oficijnij-vizit-prezidenta-ukrayini-do-serbiyi-8117<\/em><\/a>)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Budapest’s objection, interestingly, did not come from Viktor Orb\u00e1n. His successor, P\u00e9ter Magyar, insisted that Hungary had been listed without its consent. Its charg\u00e9 d’affaires attended <\/a>only as an observer and did not sign the summit declaration. The real issue was the rights of approximately 100,000 ethnic Hungarians living in Transcarpathia. Even business below the level of membership got pulled in as the Hungarian Oil and Gas Public Limited Company (MOL) <\/a>and Naftogaz signed a non-binding memorandum on the sidelines of the summit to store Ukrainian Oil in Hungary. Magyar said no such facility would be built under his government. On October 12, Ukraine’s parliament<\/a> passed the minority-rights law Budapest had demanded. If Hungary joins, the C8 would have given a reluctant neighbour a way in once its conditions were met.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Canada, clearly, will not be part of the C8, but Ottawa ought to pay attention to how it was put together. When Prime Minister Carney and President Zelenskyy signed the 100-year partnership declaration in Calgary last month<\/a>, they said they were meeting “at a moment of global rupture.” Kyiv’s response to that very rupture has been to stop waiting for Washington and\/or Brussels and to organize its own neighbourhood. Seemingly, a low bar for entry and a bet that cooperation becomes harder to unwind once it exists still seem to be the strategy, just with different goals now in mind. At the same time, it is also a way of pushing back against Moscow, which still uses energy to lean on the region. After the MOL-Naftogaz memorandum<\/a>, a Russian energy analyst warned that the deal could trigger a halt in oil supplies to Hungary. Every cross-border deal, pipeline, or even interconnectors make that potential pressure lever less effective. Canada’s options are clearly vastly different, having the United States as its neighbour, so any comparable arrangements would have to be built across both the Atlantic and the Pacific. The method, however, is worth borrowing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In September 18, 2026, with war raging in the East, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy hosted European leaders at a ski resort in the Carpathians to launch a new regional club with like-minded partners. The Carpathian Eight (C8), launched in Bukovel, is meant to serve as a framework for cooperation in sectors such as logistics, security, and energy, as well as other cross-border economic interests.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":128,"featured_media":2793,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[209,1,83],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2791","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-balkans","category-news","category-ukraine"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/eetn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2791","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/eetn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/eetn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/eetn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/128"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/eetn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2791"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/eetn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2791\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2796,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/eetn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2791\/revisions\/2796"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/eetn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2793"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/eetn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2791"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/eetn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2791"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/eetn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}