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Hungary still opposes allocation of €500 mln from Peace Fund to Ukraine — minister

According to Peter Szijjarto, Hungary "has not received answers to the questions regarding Hungarian legal entities and individuals in the list of 'international sponsors of war'"

BUDAPEST, December 11. /TASS/. Hungary will continue to oppose providing Ukraine with €500 mln from the European Peace Fund as long it does not receive guarantees that Hungarian companies will not be unreasonably included in the list of "international sponsors of war," Hungary’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and External Economic Relations Peter Szijjarto said at a meeting with his EU counterparts in Brussels.

"We have repeatedly drawn attention to the fact that more than 80 billion in European funds have been spent in Ukraine so far, but we have not yet seen a detailed report on this. And we still do not agree with the allocation of €500 mln from the European Peace Fund due to the fact that steps that harm Hungarian interests are being taken in Ukraine. We have not received answers to the questions regarding Hungarian legal entities and individuals in the list of 'international sponsors of war,' which is unacceptable to us," the foreign minister said, speaking to Hungarian journalists during a break in the meeting. His press conference was broadcast on Facebook (banned in Russia, owned by the corporation Meta, recognized as extremist in Russia).

The Hungarian government has repeatedly said that it would not allow Ukraine to receive the next tranche of €500 mln from the European Peace Fund until Kiev guarantees that the Hungarian bank OTP will not be on the Ukrainian blacklist again. At Hungary's insistence, OTP was removed from the list in early October, but Budapest wants to make sure that such incidents do not happen again. In addition, several managers of the bank remain on the Ukrainian list, against whom the threat of sanctions persists. Hungary’s largest bank, which has more than 3 million customers, found itself on the Ukrainian "sponsors of war" list this spring because the OTP Group has an institution of the same name operating on the financial services market in Russia.

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