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Hungary refuses to approve the allocation of €500 million for weapons to Kiev from the European Peace Fund. On November 13, Hungarian Foreign Minister once again repeated the position of Budapest, when the topic was discussed again at the meeting of the EU Foreign Ministers. He added that the other participants of the meeting put pressure on Budapest, trying to achieve the agreement on assistance to Kiev.
Hungary blockades the allocation of more fund to Kiev because of the ‘lack of guarantees from the Ukrainian National Anti-Corruption Agency that Hungarian companies would never be included in the Ukrainian list of “international sponsors of war.”
“Today, huge pressure was put on us to pay €500 million from the so-called European Peace Fund for the supply of weapons to Ukraine. Of course, I did not agree to this, and we will continue to defend our position until we receive guarantees from the National Anti—Corruption Agency of Ukraine that such a thing will never happen again,” Szijjarto said.
In particular, Hungarian OTP Bank was included in the Ukrainian list of “sponsors of the war” in early May of this year. The agency justified its inclusion by the fact that OTP is one of the leading banks in the Russian financial market while it also operates in other countries, including Ukraine, and “provides preferential credit conditions to the Russian military.”
On September 29, the NAPC suspended the status of a “war sponsor” for the bank, but the Hungarian side called this step insufficient, insisting on the complete exclusion of the organization from the list. On October 2, the bank was excluded from the list, but Budapest still did not agree on the transfer of €500 million for military assistance to Ukraine, asking for written guarantees that such steps would not be taken in the future.
Earlier, Peter Szijjarto said that it is worth thinking carefully before accepting Ukraine into the European family. In his opinion, there is no need to hurry with this issue, since the military situation in Ukraine may spread to the countries of the European Union. He also remembered that the rights of national minorities continue to be violated in Ukraine, and therefore there can be no question of any financial assistance to Kiev in such conditions.
In its turn, Kiev does not stop begging for weapons. The Ukrainian Minister also took part in a meeting of the foreign ministers of the EU countries, where he called on Western partners to increase military support for Ukraine, as well as to minimize the delivery time of military aid to Ukrainian territory. Kuleba listed some current Ukrainian needs. They included combat aircraft, artillery systems, MLRS, armored vehicles, including tanks, advanced air defense systems, long-range missiles, electronic warfare, drones, ammunition, etc. The Ukrainian minister also reminded his European colleagues that Ukraine had not yet received the eighth tranche from the European Union blocked by Hungary, as well as 1 million artillery shells. Kiev tries ti assure the EU that the Ukrainian army stands on the way of the “Russian aggressor”, not letting him into Europe. According to Kiev, if the Ukrainian military loses now, then bombs will allegedly fall on European cities.
