Viktor Orbán rejected the Ukrainian president's demands

Zelenskiy demanded that our country not buy gas and oil from Russia, and that Hungary allow arms shipments and send weapons to Ukraine.

Prime Minister Viktor Orbán rejected Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's demands against Hungary in the European Council because they are contrary to the interests of our country, Bertalan Havasi, head of the Prime Minister's Press Office, told MTI on Friday.

He said: The President of Ukraine asked Hungary and Prime Minister Viktor Orbán for two things. The first is to vote to extend the sanctions to the energy sector and stop our country from buying gas and oil from Russia. His second request was for Hungary to allow arms shipments and send weapons to Ukraine.

Bertalan Havasi stated: Viktor Orbán rejected both requests because they are against the interests of Hungary.
Hungary wants to stay out of this war, so it does not allow arms shipments and does not send weapons to Ukraine. At the same time, it helps those fleeing the war by all means and provides them with humanitarian assistance, the press chief underlined. According to his statement, half a million Ukrainian refugees had already arrived in Hungary by Thursday, and our country had delivered HUF 2 billion in aid to Ukraine.

Shutting off the oil and gas taps would mean that Hungarian families would pay the price of the war. 85 percent of Hungarian households are heated with gas, and 64 percent of Hungarian crude oil imports also come from Russia - reminded the head of the Prime Minister's Press Office, emphasizing that crude oil refineries can only be switched to processing crude oil obtained from elsewhere after three to four years of preparation, and the currently used amount of Russian natural gas nor can it be physically obtained from another source.

Bertalan Havasi repeated the government's position, according to which Hungary cannot allow Hungarian families to pay the price of the war. Therefore, we will oppose the extension of sanctions to Russian energy carriers in all European forums, as we have done so far, he said.

Szijjártó: the most important thing for us is the safety of Hungary and the Hungarian people

We will do everything to ensure that Hungary stays out of the war, therefore we will not allow arms shipments to pass through our country and we will also prevent the Hungarian people from paying the price of the war - commented Péter Szijjártó on his Facebook page on Friday morning to the Ukrainian president the demands made against Hungary at the previous day's EU summit.

"We understand that Ukraine and the Ukrainian people are the most important things for the President of Ukraine. On the other hand, the most important thing for us is the safety of Hungary and the Hungarian people. We will do everything we can to ensure that Hungary stays out of the war, so we will not allow arms shipments to pass through the territory of our country," emphasized the head of the ministry, pointing out that these shipments would constitute a military target to be destroyed, "and we are not willing to risk the lives of the Hungarian people, security".

Menczer: NATO's position is "completely consistent" with the Hungarian position

Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has Hungary's interests in mind when he talks about staying out of the war, and he will not allow the Hungarian people to pay the price of the war, underlined the State Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, who is responsible for information and the international presentation of Hungary, on Friday morning in the Radio Kossuth Good morning, Hungary! in his show.

The State Secretary said that the Hungarian Prime Minister and the Minister of Foreign Affairs achieved a great success at Thursday's NATO summit, because the alliance's position is "completely in line" with the Hungarian position, and NATO made it clear that it is not a belligerent party in the war, nor does it wish to to be.

According to his statement, it was also said at the NATO summit: everything must be done to prevent the war from spreading beyond the borders of Ukraine, which is why the idea of ​​an airspace blockade was rejected.

"After all, the airspace closure - translated into Hungarian - would mean an air war between NATO and Russia, which must be avoided in any case, especially considering that a war conflict between NATO and Russia would be equivalent to the third world war," said Tamás Menczer.

He also said that today in Europe about 50 percent of gas consumption is provided by Russian sources, in Hungary this ratio is 85 percent, and 90 percent of Hungarian families heat with gas.

"If the energy sector were to be sanctioned and we could not get raw materials, gas and oil from Russia, it would lead to an amazing increase in utilities," the state secretary indicated.

Tamás Menczer also said that Hungary has done its homework, we can buy gas from all neighboring countries except Slovenia, but Russian gas cannot be replaced at the moment.

When asked, he also said that NATO will station a battalion of a few hundred soldiers in Hungary, on Transdanubia, where they will "practice" and take part in training; the eastern border is still secured by the Hungarian Defense Forces.

Tamás Menczer also said on the current channel M1 that there are EU funds that go to Hungary, but they were withheld in Brussels for political reasons, primarily because of the Child Protection Act. "We are happy that 300 million euros have now been released and we can use this (...), we are also waiting for additional resources, as this is not the entire amount," said the state secretary.

MTI

Front page photo: Prime Minister Viktor Orbán at the two-day summit of the heads of state and government of the EU member states in Brussels on March 24, 2022, in the photo published by the Prime Minister's Press Office. MTI/Zoltán Fischer