Hungary, one of the seven countries which share land borders with Ukraine, on Monday declared that it will not allow passage of any lethal weapons to latter via its territory.
“The government made a new decision today: we will not allow the transfer of deadly weapons on Hungary. This decision is justified by the security of Hungary and the Hungarian community of Transcarpathians, as these shipments can easily become the target of military attacks,” Hungary’s foreign minister Szijjártó Péter said in a Facebook post yesterday.
He also asserted that his government will always prioritise the safety and interest of Hungarians first and foremost.
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“Our most important task is to guarantee the safety of the country and the Hungarian people, therefore we must not get involved in the war conflict taking place next door,” he further wrote.
On Sunday, Hungarian PM Victor Orban said his country will not commit any weaponry to Ukraine citing national security concerns.
Such decisions “allow us to stay out of this conflict and also that there should not be sanctions for which we have to pay the price in the end, even if we stay out of the conflict,” Orban said.
Nevertheless, PM Orban has supported the European Union in severely sanctioning Russia in a boost to the bloc’s unity.
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“Hungary made clear that we support all the sanctions, so we will block nothing, so what the prime ministers of the European Union are able to agree, we accept it and we support it… This is the time to be united, it's a war,” PM Orban said on Saturday.
The European Union on Sunday agreed to provide arms and other aid worth 500 million Euros to the Ukrainian military.
“For the first time ever, the EU will finance the purchase and delivery of weapons and other equipment to a country that is under attack… This is a watershed moment,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian pilots today arrived in Poland to take over the fighter jets donated by the European Union, as per a report by Politico.
The Ukrainian Parliament on Monday tweeted that they will be donated 70 planes for its military which include Russia’s MiG-29 and Su-25. These will be donated by Bulgaria (16 MiG-29, 14 Su-25), Poland (28 MiG-29) and Slovakia (MiG-29).
