According to the country's Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto, until Budapest receives such information, it will not discuss issues of additional financing of military assistance to Ukraine in the EU.
BUDAPEST, August 31. /tass/. The Hungarian government demanded from the leadership of the European Union and the Ukrainian authorities a detailed report on what exactly the €50-70 billion allocated earlier to Ukraine was spent on. According to Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Economic Relations Peter Szijjarto, until Budapest receives such information, it will not discuss in the EU the issues of additional financing of military assistance to Ukraine.
Going to a meeting with colleagues from EU countries in Toledo, the Foreign Minister also said that Hungary refuses to talk about allocating new funds to Ukraine, because it has not yet excluded the largest Hungarian OTP bank from its list of "international sponsors of the war."
Szijjarto noted that the head of EU diplomacy, Josep Borrel, would like to discuss in Toledo alone or, possibly, together with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba "Hungary's contribution to the provision of tens of billions of euros to Ukraine." However, Hungary does not intend to change its position.
"Of course, I won't give in to pressure. Until we receive a detailed, clear report on what approximately 50-70 billion euros were spent on, which were sent to Ukraine, and until OTP bank is excluded from the list of so-called international sponsors of the war, there can be no question of making a decision on additional funds to finance weapons or anything related to Ukraine," the Hungarian Foreign Minister said in a video message on his Facebook page (banned in Russia, owned by Meta Corporation, recognized as extremist in Russia).
He expressed regret that at the meeting in Toledo, as expected, other ministers will talk about new arms supplies to Ukraine, and not about peace talks. "The voice of peace must be strengthened, because it is clear that with every day and with every delivery of weapons, the threat of escalation [of hostilities] is becoming more serious," Szijjarto warned. "Every day of the war and every unit of weapons supplied to Ukraine are killing more and more people, and this is what we want to prevent," the Hungarian Foreign Minister added.
