With this, Ukraine admitted that the bank was included in this list for "unfounded, lying, ridiculous" reasons.

It is a step in the right direction that Ukraine removed OTP from the list of international sponsors of the war, but the government wants assurances that the financial institution will not be added to the list in the future, so it invited representatives of the Ukrainian National Anti-Corruption Agency (NAZK) to Budapest, he reported. according to the ministry's announcement, Péter Szijjártó, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, on Wednesday in Budapest.

In his joint press conference with the Deputy Prime Minister of Moldova, the head of the ministry welcomed the fact that OTP was removed from the blacklist, however, he believed that this practically acknowledged that the bank was included in this list for "unfounded, false, ridiculous" reasons.

For example, he called unfounded the reason that OTP would be one of the dominant players in Russia's banking system, while its market share is only 0.17 percent. And what, in his words, is "more of a category of ridiculousness", that they claimed that OTP also operates in Donetsk, after they actually have a branch in a Russian settlement with the same name, hundreds of kilometers from the Ukrainian border.

"Therefore, all four reasons named by the Ukrainian agency were false, ridiculous, baseless reasons, so we think it is natural that the OTP is not included in this list".

At the same time, Péter Szijjártó believed that the listing procedure itself was a cause for concern, as it could happen at any time in the future.

"Therefore, today we communicated our request to the ambassador of Ukraine in Budapest that the delegation of the Ukrainian anti-corruption agency come here to Budapest as soon as possible, so that we can negotiate an agreement that guarantees that such a decision will not be made in the future, nor will it be made in the future arbitrarily, on the basis of ridiculous reasons, put the OTP on this list," he said.

"If a reassuring agreement is reached there, then of course we will have to consider what actions this warrants on our part".

The minister then went on to say that NAZK also has a list submitted for sanctions, on which the Russian entity of OTP and four Hungarian bank managers are still listed.

"We expect these four OTP leaders and the Russian entity to be removed from the list of the Ukrainian anti-corruption agency"

he declared.

Finally, speaking about the press reports about the possible release of frozen European Union funds, he stated that these funds go to Hungary, whether they like it or not, and this has nothing to do with amending the community's budget.

"That is a completely different question. And it must be considered from completely different points of view. The payment of the funds due to us is independent of everything, it belongs to us, it must be paid"

he warned.

MTI

Featured image: Péter Szijjártó's Facebook page