BUDAPEST, December 16. /TASS/. Hungary will not contribute a single penny to any kind of EU loan for Ukraine and objects to the use of frozen Russian assets in the West for this purpose, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said on the Hour of Truth (Az Igazsag Oraja) program on YouTube.
He said that at the December 15 meeting of the EU Foreign Affairs Council in Brussels, "there were fanatical discussions about the need to send huge sums of money to Ukraine using frozen Russian assets."
According to him, EU leaders want to raise over 200 billion euros for Ukraine through this scheme, 120 billion euros of which "will go toward arming the Ukrainian army and maintaining it during the war."
"While peace talks are bringing us closer to a diplomatic settlement of the conflict, the European Union is completely unlawfully encroaching on Russian assets, creating the risk of continued and escalating military action," Szijjarto noted.
"This fully goes against Hungary's national security interests. Yesterday, I made it clear that we are not prepared to spend a single cent of the Hungarian people's money on Ukraine - not on maintaining a functional Ukrainian state, not on arming the army, not on war," the minister stressed.
He also stated that Budapest is very wary of potential retaliatory measures from Moscow if Russian assets frozen in the West are confiscated. According to him, during recent negotiations, Russian representatives explicitly stated their intention to selectively respond to the possible seizure of Russian assets depending on the positions of different countries.
Earlier, Prime Minister Viktor Orban stated that Hungary does not support the expropriation of Russian assets for the purpose of financing Ukraine. He believes that such a move by the European Union would be equal to a declaration of war. Orban said he would speak out against this at the EU summit, which is to take place on December 18-19 in Brussels.