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Hungary has complete sufficiency when it comes to taking care of refugees from Ukraine, and the country does not require external assistance, Péter Szijjártó, the foreign minister, said in Brussels on Friday.
Speaking to Hungarian journalists after an extraordinary meeting of EU foreign ministers, the minister noted that since the outbreak of the war, 140,000 refugees have arrived in Hungary, with around 100,000 Ukrainian nationals, 22,000 ethnic Hungarians, and 18,000 citizens of non-EU countries. Hungary is helping the latter to return home, he added.
Szijjártó said the ministers of several EU countries had paid tribute to the countries neighboring Ukraine, including Hungary, for taking in and caring for the refugees.
Meanwhile, no further proposals or decisions in terms of sanctions were made at today’s meeting of EU foreign ministers, he said. Hungary is taking part in common EU decision-making, and is intent on seeing EU unity maintained. But Hungary won’t allow the Hungarian people to pay the price of war, so sanctions should not apply to energy supplies, he said, adding that any possible sanctions on energy supplies would not win Hungary’s backing.
Commenting a statement by Ukraine’s ambassador to Budapest on Friday, Szijjártó said Hungary would continue to provide humanitarian help to Ukraine but would not supply arms. Neither soldiers nor lethal aid will be sent to the war zone, he reiterated.
featured image illustration via Zoltán Balogh/MTI