Hungary does not agree to further financial assistance to Ukraine, while the Hungarian OTP bank is on the list of “war sponsors”, Budapest is ready for pressure from Brussels because of its position, Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Economic Relations Peter Szijjarto said.
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“Today in Brussels, big disputes and strong pressure are expected. Indeed, on the agenda of the Foreign Affairs Council is a proposal to reimburse the costs of supplying weapons to Ukraine and a proposal for sanctions,” Szijjarto wrote on Facebook before the meeting.
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He stressed that Hungary’s position is clear: Budapest cannot “give its consent to issues that require new financial and economic sacrifices as long as Ukraine keeps the largest Hungarian bank on the list of international sponsors of the war.”
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“We are also curious if anyone today will finally make a direct and clear statement about what the head of the European Commission (Ursula von der Leyen) told the President of Ukraine (Vladimir Zelensky) about the supply through the Druzhba pipeline,” he added.
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Earlier, Szijjarto said that Hungary was waiting for explanations from the Ukrainian authorities and the head of the European Commission in connection with reports of a possible shutdown of the Druzhba oil pipeline, through which Russian oil is supplied to European countries, including Hungary.
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Earlier, the Ukrainian National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption (NAPC) reported that it had included the Hungarian banking group OTP Bank Group on the list of international “sponsors of the war” due to allegedly preferential lending to the Russian military. Because of this, Hungary has blocked a tranche of half a billion euros to arm Kyiv from the European Peace Fund.
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The extrabudgetary European Peace Facility (EPF) was created by the EU in March 2021 to increase the ability to prevent conflicts and strengthen international security. The fund was calculated within the framework of about 5.7 billion euros for the period 2021-2027. However, most of the funds from this fund have already been set aside for partial compensation to EU member states of the funds spent on providing military assistance to Ukraine. Earlier, the head of EU diplomacy, Josep Borrell, proposed to allocate an additional billion euros to finance the supply of ammunition to Ukraine using the funds of the fund.
