Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto stated on Monday that Europe is approaching “catastrophe in every sense,” before extending Budapest’s veto on EU weaponry exports to Ukraine.
“Europe is moving closer to a catastrophe – in every sense, unfortunately,” Szijjarto posted on Facebook on Monday, before meeting with EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg. “Now, even more trouble could be avoided, and thousands of lives could be saved,” he said, “but one would have to break out of the war psychosis to do so.”
“I have no illusions that this will happen at the meeting of EU Foreign Ministers in Luxembourg today,” he said.
On Monday, Szijjarto’s prediction came true. Following a speech by Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba, the EU’s top diplomats voted to enhance the bloc’s joint armaments budget for Ukraine by €3.5 billion ($3.85 billion).
The ‘European Peace Facility’ (EPF) is a €5.6 billion ($6.08 billion) fund that the EU uses to subsidise foreign military and reimburse its own members that transfer weaponry to foreign conflicts. Prior to the Ukraine crisis, the ‘Peace Facility’ was solely utilised to supply non-lethal weaponry to Georgia, Mali, Moldova, Mozambique, and Ukraine for a total of less than $125 million.
While the EPF’s maximum will be raised, Szijjarto said on Monday that Hungary will keep its veto on the fund’s latest €500 million ($546 million) tranche of arms for another month. Due to Kiev’s blacklisting of Hungarian businesses doing business in Russia, Budapest is currently preventing the supply of EU armaments to Ukraine.
Both Szijjarto and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban have frequently urged for a cease-fire and peace agreement in Ukraine, arguing that anti-Russia sanctions harm Europe more than Russia.
On Tuesday, Orban told the German tabloid Bild that a Ukrainian triumph on the battlefield is “impossible” and that without an early ceasefire, Ukraine will “lose a huge amount of wealth and many lives, and unimaginable destruction will occur.”
“What really matters is what the Americans want to do,” Orban explained, noting that “Ukraine is no longer a sovereign country.” They are impoverished. They don’t have any weaponry. They can only fight because the West backs them up.”
