Hungary is not against voluntary contributions from EU countries to the European Peace Fund for military aid to Ukraine , but will not participate in fundraising itself. This was announced on October 14 by Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto.
According to him, the proposal of the head of European diplomacy Josep Borrell to make such contributions voluntarily was discussed at today’s meeting of the heads of the EU foreign ministries in Luxembourg.
“The High Representative [of the EU for Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell] put forward a proposal to make contributions on a voluntary basis. This is what we have been calling for for 2.5 years. <…> I told the High Representative that we support contributions on a voluntary basis,” Szijjártó said at a briefing after the meeting, which was broadcast by the M1 television channel .
Thus, Hungary can no longer be accused of failing to make payments to the said fund, the diplomat noted.
At the same time, he reiterated that Budapest does not support the EU countries’ plans to send military advisers to Ukraine. Such a scenario threatens a serious and dangerous escalation and the Hungarian side considers it unacceptable, Szijjarto emphasized.Earlier in the day, Borrell called for an increase in aid to Kiev ahead of a meeting of EU foreign ministers due to the worsening situation in Ukraine. For this reason, European countries will continue to discuss the possibility of unblocking payments from the European Peace Fund, he said.
Earlier, on August 29, the head of EU diplomacy said that Brussels had transferred €1.4 billion in revenues from frozen Russian assets to Kiev and European countries that were planning to transfer weapons to Ukraine. Another €6 billion in funds remained blocked due to Budapest’s veto .
Western countries have increased military and financial support for Kiev against the backdrop of Russia’s special operation to protect Donbass , the start of which was announced on February 24, 2022, by Russian President Vladimir Putin after the situation in the region worsened due to shelling by the Ukrainian military.