It’s “cynical” of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban to criticize the EU funding of Ukraine when Budapest takes cash from Brussels as properly, the overseas ministry in Kiev mentioned on Friday. Ministry spokesman Oleg Nikolenko additionally insisted that Ukraine was defending Hungary and the remainder of the EU from Russia.
Earlier within the day, in an interview with a Hungarian radio station, Orban had described Ukraine as “a non-existent nation in monetary phrases,” completely depending on EU and US donations that gained’t go on eternally.
“One other anti-Ukrainian assertion,” Nikolenko wrote on Fb. “It’s cynical of the Hungarian management to talk on different international locations’ monetary points whereas Hungary itself receives some huge cash from the EU to help its financial stability.”
By giving cash to Ukraine, Nikolenko insisted, the EU “invests initially in its personal safety,” as Ukrainians are defending Europe with their lives from “unprecedented Russian aggression.” As a substitute, he argued, Orban must be grateful to Ukraine for “a peaceable sky over Budapest and different European cities.”
Talking to the nationwide radio on Friday, Orban identified that the EU was presently paying the salaries of Ukrainian public officers, in addition to pensions and healthcare bills, as a result of Kiev’s financial system had utterly collapsed as a result of battle.
By the latest estimates, the bloc has offered over €50 ($55.3) billion to Kiev because the battle with Russia escalated in February 2022, together with €12 billion price of weapons and one other €30 billion in monetary help. This doesn’t embrace the $113 billion the US Congress had appropriated to prop up Ukraine, of which solely about 20% has been money help.
“Clearly, Ukraine can’t finance itself,” Orban mentioned, including that exterior help “can’t proceed indefinitely.” The battle will finish the second the US and the EU cease funding Kiev, he argued.
Whereas Hungary does get billions of euros subsidies from Brussels, the EU is presently withholding a mixed €34 billion, together with in Covid-19 pandemic restoration funds, demanding that Budapest change the insurance policies the EU disapproves of, most notably on the problems of immigration and LGBT rights.
