Keeping Hungary out of the war in Ukraine is in the interest of the Hungarian people, Orbán said, adding that nothing should be allowed that would jeopardise the security of Hungarians living in Transcarpathia.Continue reading
According to the opposition alliance, Viktor Orbán is using “doublespeak” on the issue of arms supplies to Ukraine. “When it matters, we will find out who Orbán is serving,” reacted Momentum MEP Anna Donáth. Fellow EP representative Katalin Cseh called it a “serving of Russian interests.” The government announced Monday afternoon that Hungary will not send soldiers or weapons to Ukraine, nor will it allow lethal weapons to be transported through the country.
This article was originally published on our sister-site, Ungarn Heute.
Viktor Orbán announced Monday afternoon after a meeting of the National Security Operative Board that the government has decided not to allow arms shipments across the Hungarian-Ukrainian border. Because Hungarians live in Transcarpathia, we cannot support any action that could endanger their security, said the Prime Minister.
“While Orbán stated that Hungary will completely distance itself from the war, it is clear that as a NATO member, the country can do nothing but participate in the supply of weapons to Ukraine,” the opposition alliance said in a joint press release. “Orbán is trying to conceal his abstention with the false argument that he will not allow this to happen through his country. He has no problem with it going through another country. This is doublespeak,” the opposition added.
Katalin Cseh, another Momentum MEP, said that Viktor Orbán and the Hungarian government clearly sided with Russian President Vladimir Putin when they announced that they would not allow the transfer of arms sent by the European Union to Ukraine through Hungary.
This is not serving Hungarian interests, but Russian interests, the Momentum politician said.
On her Facebook page, she wrote that she had been to Ukraine and seen how the people there were doing everything they could to “defend their own country from the aggression of the war criminal Putin.”
Moreover, according to Katalin Cseh, this is not just a war between Russia and Ukraine.
By launching a war against Ukraine, Putin has attacked the entire European community – and Ukraine is defending not only its own country but also Europe. But Viktor Orbán and his government have cowardly sided with Putin and are obstructing European support, the Momentum politician wrote on social media.
According to the politician from the right-wing Jobbik party, this includes the recent decision not to allow arms supplies to Ukraine to cross Hungarian territory, János Stummer, president of the National Security Committee said during a live broadcast of Youtube channel “Partizán.”
In the field of national security, the new government will have three main tasks, if the opposition alliance wins the elections, Stummer said. First, some of the classifications imposed by the Orbán government must be lifted, he said. This could include the Paks nuclear power plant project and the construction contract for the Budapest-Belgrade railway. In addition, the system of national security screening should be reviewed. He noted that it is presumed that there are such Russian citizens in the country who have acquired citizenship under a government program without undergoing any investigation.
The third challenge, Stummer said, will be to reduce Hungary’s dependence on China and Russia.
In the featured photo illustration: Ukrainian soldiers in Kyiv. Photo by MTI/EPA/Zurab Kurcikidze
