BUDAPEST, October 27. /TASS/. Hungary has spurned amendments to the 2024-2027 EU budget proposed by the European Commission (EC) to allocate additional aid to Ukraine, because Budapest deems them untenable, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban told Radio Kossuth.
Referring to the ongoing EU summit in Brussels, he noted that in reality the changes to the EU budget, as drafted by the EC, involve substantially greater expenditures than planned. "We were sorting it out until late at night [on Thursday]. We turned to the bureaucrats, asking them to provide us with figures and it turned out to be not 60 bln but 100 bln euros," the Hungarian premier said. According to Orban, the EC proposed spending the relevant funds mainly on two items: the bloc’s new migration strategy and aid to Ukraine.
Budapest’s position is that, "the proposal by Brussels is not worthy of serious discussions." "We turned it down in order to put forward a serious proposal," Orban said. In his view, the EU should first develop a new strategy regarding Ukraine and only then determine what volume of financing is needed. As for the EU’s new migration plan, it would only serve to undermine European security because it would lead to a massive influx of illegal migrants and refugees, the prime minister cautioned.
Speaking about the discussions at the Brussels summit, Orban told the radio station that the EU needs a Plan B on Ukraine because the current European strategy on this track has proven to be a failed policy.
He asserted that Hungary, despite persistent demands by the EU leadership, is unable and unwilling to direct its taxpayers’ funds toward providing military aid to Ukraine. However, the biggest problem, according to Orban, is that the "strategy with which they entered this war and used to drag" Europeans into it, has failed. "According to the plan, Ukraine was supposed to conduct a defensive war and we [the EU] were supposed to provide it with money and military aid. A couple of months ago, the onset of the Ukrainian counteroffensive was announced and had that goal been realistic, had they been winning on the frontline, then it would have been possible to ask for money, but this strategy failed," Orban emphasized.
According to him, military experts have already acknowledged this fact, but the politicians still do not dare to talk about it openly. "It’s shameful to say it, but it simply did not work. It’s clear that the Ukrainians will not win and the Russians will not be conquered on the battlefield, and there is no doubt that Russian President [Vladimir Putin] will not countenance any failure," the Hungarian prime minister said, adding that, "in this situation, it is necessary to stop; a Plan B is needed for Ukraine."
Earlier, the Hungarian government repeatedly stated that any approach to settling the Ukrainian conflict should be based on an immediate ceasefire and peace talks.