BUDAPEST, Jan 26 Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Economic Relations of Hungary Peter Szijjarto urged «superpowers» to start peace talks on Ukraine instead of discussing arms supplies.
"We believe that instead of supplying more and more weapons, it is worth focusing on achieving a ceasefire and starting peace negotiations… I ask the representatives of large and powerful countries, the so-called “superpowers”, sit down at the negotiating table and start talking about how you can achieve peace in our neighborhood, instead of prolonging the war,” Szijjártó said, speaking at a meeting of the UN Security Council. The broadcast was conducted on Facebook*.
He noted that «Hungary and the Hungarian nation have already paid a big price» in this conflict, because along with Ukrainians, Transcarpathian Hungarians mobilized into the Ukrainian army are also dying, and Hungary itself is feeling the negative economic consequences of the conflict.
Szijjarto stressed that in the international political discourse «military rhetoric sounds very loud, and peaceful rhetoric is almost inaudible» and called for this to change.
In early March, the Hungarian parliament issued a decree prohibiting the supply of weapons to Ukraine from the country's territory. Szijjarto explained that Budapest was seeking to secure the territory of Transcarpathia, where ethnic Hungarians live, since the supply of weapons through its territory would become a legitimate military target.
Earlier, Russia sent a note to NATO countries over arms supplies to Ukraine. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov noted that any cargo that contains weapons for Ukraine will become a legitimate target for Russia. The Foreign Ministry of the Russian Federation stated that the NATO countries are «playing with fire» by supplying weapons to Ukraine. Press Secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov noted that pumping Ukraine with weapons from the West does not contribute to the success of Russian-Ukrainian negotiations and will have a negative effect.
*Meta activities (social networks Facebook and Instagram) are banned in Russia as extremist.
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