New EU grant to Ukraine means years more of fighting — Hungarian Foreign Minister
Speaking about the meeting of the EU Council at the ministerial level, Peter Szijjarto said: "To sum up briefly what has been said in recent hours, I can tell you that they don't really want to talk about peace"
BUDAPEST, July 20. /TASS/. The EU leadership’s proposal to allocate 20 billion euros in military assistance to Ukraine over four years will prolong hostilities in the country for years to come.
Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Economic Relations of Hungary, Peter Szijjarto voiced this opinion on Thursday. He was taking part in a meeting with his colleagues from the EU countries in Brussels.
Szijjarto said that EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell proposed to allocate 20 billion euros to finance arms supplies to Ukraine over a period of 4 years.
"This practically establishes the military regime for years," Szijjarto said at a meeting with Hungarian reporters during a break in the session.
"So now you should not think about peace [in Ukraine], not only in the short term, but also in the long term," the Hungarian Foreign Minister stressed. His press conference was broadcast on his Facebook page (banned in Russia, owned by the Meta corporation, recognized as extremist in Russia).
Speaking about the meeting of the EU Council at the ministerial level, Szijjarto said: "To sum up briefly what has been said in recent hours, I can tell you that they don't really want to talk about peace." "What does the European Union say? It will be a war zone [in Ukraine] for four years."
"Such a proposal is shocking. The question is, how many people will die in these four years, while we finance the supply of arms for 20 billion euros. And how many Hungarians [from the Transcarpathia region] will die in these four years?" the Foreign Minister said.
In his opinion, the last 500 days have proven that the Ukrainian conflict cannot be resolved on the battlefield, and the more weapons that are delivered there, the more dead there will be. "Therefore, we are asking Brussels, Berlin, Paris and Washington to bring peace, not weapons, to our neighboring country," Szijjarto said.