Budapest: Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto stated at a press conference on Tuesday that Hungary will not consent to any additional EU financing of arms shipments to Ukraine until Kiev removes the country's largest lender from its list of "sponsors of war." The minister criticised Ukraine for placing Hungary's OTP bank on a "list of shame," calling the action "outrageous" and "unacceptable."
The minister stated, "Our position is clear: Hungary will not approve any additional EU funding for weapon shipments to Ukraine until OTP [bank] is removed from this list. He cautioned that the decision would apply to any future military aid as well as the €500 million ($546 million) tranche of arms that Budapest earlier vetoed.
It would be better if the EU did not propose any plans to finance additional arms shipments, according to Szijjarto.
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Budapest is "doing everything to help the Ukrainian people," and Hungarians "are paying the price of a war they have nothing to do with," Szijjarto said after a meeting of the Hungarian-Jordanian joint economic committee. The official also referred to Kiev's stance on Hungary as perplexing. We do occasionally feel as though they [the Ukrainians] are making fun of us, he continued.
Additionally, the minister slammed the justifications given by Ukraine for placing OTP on its blacklist, saying, "We would like to laugh [at them] because these are ridiculous things that are brought up." The Hungarian bank situation is "serious," he added, adding that Budapest is "rather horrified" by the development.
In May, Hungary refused to approve a tranche of EU military aid for Ukraine due to Kiev's "increasingly hostile" stance towards the nation.
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Budapest had restricted funds from the so-called European Peace Facility (EPF). The bloc uses the €5.6 billion ($6.08 billion) fund to pay for foreign militaries and reimburse its own members who send weapons to other countries' conflicts. The "Peace Facility" had previously been used to distribute non-lethal equipment to Georgia, Mali, Moldova, Mozambique, and Ukraine for a combined cost of less than $125 million before the hostilities in Ukraine.
Budapest has criticised the EU for arming Kiev and called for a cease-fire and peace agreement in Ukraine on numerous occasions. Additionally, Hungary has insisted that sanctions against Russia hurt Europe more than they do Russia. The German tabloid Bild quoted Viktor Orban, the prime minister of Hungary, as saying in June that a Ukrainian victory on the battlefield was "impossible."
