Iryna Vereshchuk unsure what Hungary’s Viktor Orbán wants in exchange for Russia’s good will: cheap gas or Zakarpattya region

Evropeyska Pravda – Tuesday, 22 March 2022, 17:25

Iryna Vereshchuk, Deputy Prime Minister for the Questions of Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories, criticised Hungary’s government for its lack of support of sanctions against Russia. 

Source: Iryna Vereshchuk on her Facebook page

According to Vereshchuk: "They don’t support the sanctions. They not only refuse to supply arms, they are also not allowing weapons from other countries to pass through their territory. They say no to practically everything. Before long, Budapest’s official rhetoric will be openly pro-Russian. What is this all about? Do they want some cheap Russian gas? Or, maybe, they want our Zakarpattya?"

Details: The Deputy Prime Minister stated that not even Russia’s satellite states of the former USSR are now acting in the same way as Hungary’s government.

"In this confrontation between civilisations, it is unlikely that Hungary will be able to curry favours with Russia and at the same time profit from its neighbour’s problems. Hungary just needs to calmly take the side of the civilised world. Not to repeat the mistakes of the Second World War, when Hungary made the wrong choice. Yes, the right decision is always difficult to make at first, but the fact that it is right makes things easier later on," she added.

Background: On 21 March Péter Szijjártó, Hungary’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, said that Budapest will not support sanctions against the Russian Federation relating to the energy sector, and that it is opposed to a no-fly zone over Ukraine as well as Poland’s proposed peacekeeping operation.

Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs warned that if Russia achieves its goals in Ukraine, it will move on to its Western neighbours.