Hungary stalls new EU military aid to Ukraine

A pro-government pundit believes Hungary had no choice but to veto a new tranche of EU aid to Ukraine and a new sanctions package against Russia after hostile gestures by Ukraine.

In a Facebook video on Wednesday, Foreign Minister Péter Szíjjártó said Hungary will not approve any EU support for Ukraine that requires unanimity, including the latest €500 million aid tranche to purchase artillery rounds, and further sanctions against Russia, until Kyiv removes the OTP bank from its list of ‘international war sponsors’. He also demanded the cancellation of a law that would force Hungarian-minority schools in Ukraine to be closed by September and gave as another reason President Volodymyr Zelensky’s reported earlier suggestion, as reported by leaked US intelligence, that the Druzhba oil pipeline be blown up. Kyiv is becoming increasingly hostile towards Hungary, he said.

In a furious column in Magyar Nemzet, Zsolt Bayer vituperates against President Zelensky of Ukraine whom he describes as a corrupt leader at the service of the United States, who didn’t even shrink from a terrorist threat against the Druzhba oil pipeline (See BudaPost, May 16). He finds it particularly disheartening that (according to Ukrainian sources) Mr Zelensky was encouraged to do so by Ursula von der Leyen, the President of the European Commission. Hungary has been left with no other option than to suspend bilateral talks with Ukraine, ‘the terror state’, he writes, adding that Hungary hasn’t stopped helping Ukrainian refugees, despite everything.

Tags: oil pipeline, OTP, von der Leyen, Zelensky