Budapest to block arms funds for Ukraine while kyiv sanctions OTP bank

The Hungarian government insisted on Thursday that it will continue to refuse its support for European financing of arms deliveries to Ukraine as long as kyiv retains the largest Hungarian bank, the OTP, on the list of companies sanctioned for supporting Russia.

“We are not prepared to negotiate on the 500 million euros blocked so far, nor on the 20,000 million that have been raised now, while the OTP is on the list of international sponsors of the war”said Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó.

The head of Hungarian diplomacy made this statement in Brussels, on the sidelines of the Council of the European Union (EU), which today endorsed a plan to dedicate 500 million euros from the EU budget to stimulate the production of armaments in the EU.

The law, dubbed ASAP, was approved as a point without debate during this Thursday’s session, it is part of the European plan to donate one million cartridges a year to Ukraine, which is in addition to other previous decisions to deliver arms to the country under attack.

During a break in today’s meeting, Szijjártó said that “Brussels would spend about 20,000 million euros in the next four years for the transport of weapons to Ukraine, of which Hungary should cover about 200 million”he said in a statement.

In this sense, the Conservative politician reiterated that Hungary will not support the proposal, which in itself means that the European Union (EU) is preparing for at least four more years of war.