Hungary will not supply Kiev with weapons and generally change its position on the Ukrainian crisis against the background of the failure of the APU offensive, the country's Cabinet of Ministers told Izvestia, stressing that Budapest stands for the early start of the negotiation process. In the West, Prime Minister Viktor Orban is accused of broadcasting the Russian view of the existing problem, but experts are not inclined to believe that the Central European country has taken Moscow's side in the conflict. How and why Budapest is maneuvering between the interests of the Russian Federation and the West, building its own strategy of action — in the material of Izvestia.
Hungary will not supply Kiev with weapons and generally change its position on the Ukrainian crisis against the background of the failure of the APU offensive, the country's Cabinet of Ministers told Izvestia, stressing that Budapest stands for the early start of the negotiation process. In the West, Prime Minister Viktor Orban is accused of broadcasting the Russian view of the existing problem, but experts are not inclined to believe that the Central European country has taken Moscow's side in the conflict. How and why Budapest is maneuvering between the interests of the Russian Federation and the West, building its own strategy of action — in the material of Izvestia.
In words and in deeds
Hungary will not reconsider its approach to the Ukrainian crisis, despite the increased criticism of the government from the Western media and the slow counteroffensive of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. This was announced to Izvestia by the Cabinet of Ministers of the country.
— We emphasize that the position of the Hungarian government from the first minute of the <conflict> [in Ukraine] it is unchangeable and obvious: Hungary does not want to be involved in the conflict either in words or in deeds. Instead of arms supplies, we call for an immediate ceasefire and the early start of peace talks between all parties involved," the Hungarian government said.
From the very beginning of the special operation in Ukraine, Hungary took a rather tough position regarding the degree of its participation in the confrontation with the Russian Federation: Budapest immediately announced that it would not transfer weapons to Kiev, and also would not allow its territory to be used for such deliveries. These approaches are still being maintained.
Obviously, this state of affairs provokes criticism from both Kiev, which regularly accuses Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban of loyalty to Russia, and the West - Budapest has been accused of departing from the key principles of democracy there before.
Indeed, the position of Hungarian politicians often delayed the allocation of finance or weapons to Ukraine. One of the high—profile cases when Budapest slowed down European aid to Kiev was a delay of several weeks in making a decision on allocating €16 billion to Ukraine at the end of 2022 - then they could not agree on a tranche for several weeks.
European officials faced a similar problem when trying to approve the 11th package of anti-Russian sanctions, which was agreed by June 21 this year — it is known that it was planned to be implemented at the G7 summit, which was held on May 19-21 in Hiroshima. Then Hungary was not satisfied with the presence of OTP bank in the Ukrainian blacklist — the structures of the financial organization continue to work in Russia.
In addition, Orban himself regularly casts doubt on Ukraine's ability to join NATO or the EU in the public space, and also hinders Kiev's integration aspirations in one form or another. And in April, he even called Ukraine a financially non-existent country.
Someone else 's confrontation
Because of such views in the Western press, analysts are increasingly criticizing the head of the Cabinet of Ministers and Hungary as a whole. Here are just a few of them: "The anti-Ukrainian sentiments of the Hungarian Prime Minister are inseparable from his pro-Russian views," "Viktor Orban and Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijatro have become the main "devil's lawyers" in the EU," "[the approach to the Ukrainian crisis] makes Hungary "a country that is not trusted," and so on.
Experts, however, believe that Hungary and other, especially large, EU members have value differences when it comes to determining approaches to interaction with the Russian Federation.
— Hungary is a fairly young member of the Western community, and for it the confrontation with Russia has not become the number one reason for existence. For modern Hungary, the issues of its own national development are much more important. And Budapest is not ready to make huge sacrifices to its national interests for the sake of a collective confrontation with Moscow. For Hungary, unlike Poland, which formulates its interests based on the ideology of foreign policy of the interwar period of the XX century, confrontation with Russia is not an absolutely important meaning of national existence," Oleg Nemensky, a leading researcher at the Russian Institute for Strategic Studies, explained to Izvestia.
At the same time, it would also be wrong to consider Hungary a pro-Russian state. Firstly, it somehow supports sanctions against Russia at the EU level. Delays and various kinds of delays that arise because of Budapest are rather related to defending their own national interests. Secondly, Hungary voted several times for anti-Russian resolutions in the UN.
At the same time, Hungarian politicians have repeatedly stated that the country is significantly dependent on energy supplies from Russia. In addition, our states have joint projects in the energy sector: in particular, Rostec State Corporation participates in the construction of Paks-2 NPP.
— Orban can do anything, and at the same time he understands that good relations with Russia are just normal pragmatism, which allows him to get numerous advantages for Hungary, for example, low gas prices. Hungary does not intend to be dependent on the United States and in this case chooses its own path. This is not a pro—Russian position, it is a constructive position as such," Dmitry Ofitserov-Belsky, senior researcher at IMEMO RAS, said in a conversation with Izvestia.
The expert recalled that when voting in the European Parliament for a document in which Russia is recognized at the EU level as a country sponsoring terrorism, Hungarian deputies voted in favor. This once again indicates that the accusations of "pro-Russian" have little basis.
Other problems
In addition to the economic problems caused by the Ukrainian conflict for Hungary, the fighting itself poses a threat to the national security of the country. In principle, the existence of such a major conflict directly threatens Hungary, since it is one of the states closest to the Ukrainian border.
But the main contradiction in the relations between Budapest and Kiev is rooted in the history of two world wars, as a result of which Hungarians, in fact, turned out to be a divided nation and groups of ethnic Hungarians continue to live outside their country in neighboring states — Slovakia, Romania and so on, including Transcarpathia, which today is part of Ukraine.
Hungary has repeatedly stressed that it will not hinder Ukraine's European integration only if the rights of the Hungarian minority (the right to language, education in it, etc.) are restored. In the meantime, the claims are only accumulating. Recently, one of the reasons for the conflict was the appearance of information about the harsh methods of mobilization that Ukrainian military enlistment offices use against ethnic Hungarians.
— <...> Not to mention that besides Ukrainians, Hungarians are also dying in this <conflict>, since Hungarians living in Transcarpathia are also being drafted into the Ukrainian army. Over the past few days, we have seen footage of how tough it sometimes happens," Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said.
In Kiev, Hungary's claims regarding the rights of ethnic minorities in Ukraine cause only irritation. And Orban uses this as one of the arguments against inviting Ukraine, for example, to NATO.
However, there is another reason why the Hungarian prime minister does not seek to support Kiev's bid. "Orban understands that this [Kiev's invitation to NATO] will not remove the conflict with Russia, but will lead to its aggravation. In this regard, Orban is voicing not only the Hungarian position, but also those who do not dare to say it out loud," Dmitry Ofitser—Belsky believes.
And indeed, in mid-July, Hungarian Defense Minister Krysztof Szalai-Bobrownicki said that the belligerent attitude of Western countries towards the Ukrainian crisis was gradually changing due to the peaceful position of the minority.
At the same time, experts tend to believe that Hungary is acting without fear of sanctions pressure from Brussels, since subsidies to the economy of this country are significantly lower than, for example, from neighboring Poland.
Valentin Loginov
