The foreign minister of Hungary stated on Monday that while his country does not support the European Union transferring money for weapons to Ukraine. As it won’t obstruct a planned 500 million euro ($543 million) tranche of aid to Kyiv for use in the conflict with Russia.
Peter Szijjarto referred to media claims that surfaced last week that Hungary intended to block the cash designated for Ukraine under the bloc’s European Peace Fund as “falsehoods”. During a news briefing on the sidelines of a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels.
Szijjarto claimed that Hungary opposes the transfer of Western weapons to Ukraine. Because it could “lead to the prolongation or potential escalation” of the conflict. Nevertheless, the government won’t block the aid package, he added.
“Neither the supplies of weapons nor the hundreds of millions of euros that Europe has spent to finance them are anything. We think is a good idea. We won’t stop the decision, though,” he added.
The facility has so far provided Ukraine with 3.1 billion euros in funding for arms. But Hungary’s government did veto an 18 billion euro aid package in December.
That has left the EU’s other 26 countries scrambling to keep the money supply flowing. Despite this, Hungary hasn’t blocked previous payouts under the facility.
Budapest has also been outspoken in its opposition to Moscow’s sanctions. Stating that they have hurt EU nations more than Russia, and it has refused to transport weapons to Ukraine. To give them to Ukraine in the first place.
Szijjarto issued a warning on Monday, saying that Hungary will reject any future EU plans to impose sanctions on Russia’s nuclear power sector. Furthermore, by doing so would negatively impact the running of Hungary’s sole nuclear power plant, which is fueled by nuclear fuel made in Russia.
We would never consent to any action that even marginally restricts nuclear cooperation between Hungary and Russia, he stressed. “Nobody should expect it from us,” the speaker said, “since it would jeopardise the safety of our country’s energy supply.”
Szijjarto urged the Ukrainian government to uphold the rights of the Hungarian ethnic minority in Transcarpathia, a western Ukrainian area. Moreover, the “concentrated attacks” of local authorities are subjected to Hungarian minority in Ukraine.
We passionately oppose them with the idea due to these actions which will be harder to decide whether to help Ukraine in the future.
