it’s strange that countries such as Hungary and Serbia towards lean Russia particularly given their history with the Soviet Union.
Those countries that have embraced being part of Europe have progressed significantly more, as an example, Croatia (being part of former Yugoslavia) has a GDP per person of US$21k almost double Serbia at US$11k. Serbia’s GDP per person is below the world average and in line with countries such as Cuba, Dominican Republic and Grenada.
Ukraine obviously wants to align itself with prosperous democratic Europe not autocratic Russia and recent success on the battlefield suggests it is well on the way.
