Hungary’s Orbán claims Ukraine “economically defunct country,” Ukraine’s MFA reacts
Orban made a new scandalous statement about Ukraine (Photo:Johanna Geron/Reuters)
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has made another controversial statement against Ukraine, calling it is “an economically defunct country,” Hungarian newspaper Magyar Nemzet reported on April 14.
“Ukraine is an economically defunct country,” he said.
“The question is whether we’ll save Ukraine. The war will end as soon as the United States and the European Union decide to stop financing the Ukrainian state.”
Orbán claims that taxpayers of EU countries allegedly pay salaries and pensions to Ukrainians.
“We support their government and health care,” he said.
“It’s obvious that such a situation cannot last in the long term.”
Deputy Chair of Russia’s Security Council and former president Dmitry Medvedev immediately praised Orbán’s absurd statements, calling him “brave and precise man.”
Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry reacted to Orbán’s statements, calling them “anti-Ukrainian.”
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Oleg Nikolenko called on the Hungarian prime minister to “face the obvious truths.”
“Supporting Ukraine is not charity,” he wrote on Facebook.
“By supporting Ukraine, Europe is primarily investing in its own security. The Hungarian authorities should be grateful to the Ukrainians, who, at the cost of their own lives, are keeping the skies peaceful over Budapest and other European cities amid this unprecedented Russian aggression.”
Nikolenko also called it cynical that the Hungarian leadership speaks about the financial issues of other countries, while Hungary itself receives a ton of money from the European Union to support its own economic stability.
Hungary has twice received massive, multi-billion-dollar loans from the EU and IMF and continues to make payments on these loans.
The EU recently withheld almost $22 billion EUR ($22.21 billion) in cohesion funds over European Parliament concerns about democratic backsliding.
Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry was not surprised by Russia’s rapid reaction to Orbán’s statements.
The Hungarian prime minister has repeatedly been criticized for his pro-Russian statements regarding Russia’s war against Ukraine.
In particular, he recently said that his country “borders the Russians” in the east.
He also backed China’s controversial “peace plan,” which was criticized by Hungary’s partners in the United States and European Union, as well as in Ukraine.
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