The head of the Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in front of the Ukrainian embassy: we do not owe you anything, this is not our war

Several hundred people gathered on Friday afternoon at the request of Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto in front of the Ukrainian embassy in Budapest. The minister told the audience that Ukraine is fighting Russia for itself and therefore the Hungarians do not owe it anything.

– A senseless war has been going on in our neighborhood for four years. All this time, every day, they are trying to draw us into it. Brussels and Kiev want to drag Europe into war, send Europeans' money to Ukraine and drag Ukraine into the European Union. Budapest says “no” to all this, said the head of Hungarian diplomacy.

– We do not owe Ukraine anything, neither soldiers, nor money, nor EU membership. That is why Ukrainians are increasingly trying to interfere in our elections, Szijjarto said in reference to the parliamentary elections scheduled for April 12. – They want a pro-Ukrainian government in Hungary – he added.

Hungarian flags and banners depicting the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, and Prime Minister Viktor Orban's main political rival, Peter Magyar, dominated the gathered crowd. In them, Zelensky holds a child with Magyar's face, and the caption reads: “Say NO to the Ukrainian puppet.” Other banners compared the Ukrainian president to Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, and Ukraine to the mafia.

The demonstration and speeches lasted about an hour. At the end, the Hungarian national anthem was sung.

The latest escalation of the dispute between Budapest and Kiev occurred when the Druzhba pipeline transporting Russian oil to Hungary via Ukraine was damaged in a Russian attack in late January. The authorities in Kiev assure that the oil pipeline is being repaired, but Orban's government maintains that the Ukrainian authorities are deliberately suspending the restoration of transit. Budapest has suspended the supply of diesel oil to Ukraine, is blocking the 20th package of EU sanctions against Russia and an EU loan to Kiev worth EUR 90 billion. On Friday, Orban announced that he would “suspend the transit of goods important to Ukraine until Kiev resumes oil transport.”

Hungarian politicians, including Orban, released a recording online on Thursday in which Zelensky criticizes Budapest's decision to block the EU loan, saying that he will “give the address of this person (Orban – PAP) to the soldiers so that they can talk to him in their own way.” Szijjarto regarded Zelensky's statement as a death threat addressed to Orban, which was the direct cause of the demonstration in front of the embassy called for Friday. The words of the Ukrainian president were also criticized by the European Commission.

Jakub Bawołek from Budapest (PAP)

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