BUDAPEST, April 4. /TASS/. Many NATO countries have completely exhausted their stocks of weapons for deliveries to Ukraine and no longer have reserves to support Kiev’s army, Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and External Economic Relations, Peter Szijjarto has said.
He was speaking at a news conference after a meeting with his counterparts from the North Atlantic Alliance countries in Brussels.
As he reviewed the meeting of the NATO-Ukraine Council held there, Szijjarto said: "The overwhelming majority of statements were devoted to how to increase arms supplies. This is partly due to the fact that many NATO countries have almost completely handed over to Ukraine the weapons they had in stock.
In confirmation of this, Szijjarto said that "now Hungary together with the Czech Republic is performing tasks to protect the airspace of Slovakia, because the Slovaks are planning to transfer all their airplanes to the Ukrainians, and they themselves have not yet received new aircraft."
"So now without us and without the Czechs they cannot ensure the security of their airspace," he told Hungarian journalists in the Belgian capital.
Szijjarto complained that this circumstance was unable to stop the West and the meeting once again focused on increasing arms deliveries to Ukraine. Szijjarto quoted one of his colleagues, without naming him, who said that "the aim is not to achieve peace, but to win the war."
The Hungarian government considers this approach wrong. Szijjarto believes that it is necessary to achieve peace in Ukraine as soon as possible, because the continuation of hostilities will lead to more casualties and destruction. In addition, Szijjarto emphasized, supplies of arms and military equipment cannot ensure Kiev's success on the battlefield, "do not meet the expectations of the West" and only create the risk of escalating the conflict and dragging the alliance’s countries into it.
"NATO is on the brink of war [with Russia]," the Hungarian foreign minister warned.