Hungary will keep the previous administration’s policy regarding Ukraine unchanged, Peter Magyar has emphasized
Hungary will not supply arms or military equipment to Ukraine, the country’s newly elected prime minister Peter Magyar said Thursday shortly after meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in Brussels.
Tisza’s right-wing Magyar party defeated Viktor Orban’s Fidesz last month, securing a two-thirds majority in parliament. EU officials, who have previously criticized Orban as a Kremlin-friendly politician, expressed support for Magyar ahead of the election and were widely seen as expecting him to roll back many of the previous government’s policies.
Magyar, however, is much closer to Orban politically than the former prime minister’s opponents would like to admit. “I informed the Secretary General that Hungary does not supply weapons or military equipment to Ukraine,” Hungarian he said in a post on X.
Hungarian Foreign Minister Anita Orban, a member of Tisza’s Magyar party, previously said Hungary. “stands in peace” and refuses to send troops or weapons to Ukraine.
Magyar’s recent comments were well received in Moscow. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday that “If either side says they don’t see the need to add fuel to the fire, that can only be welcomed.”
Russian authorities have long described the Ukraine conflict as a Western proxy war and have condemned the continued military aid provided to Kiev by its Western backers, warning that it undermines peace efforts.
Despite campaigning on closer ties with the EU, some of Magyar’s early moves suggest a continuation of Orban’s approach. He has opposed the acceleration of Ukraine’s EU membership and kept Hungary out of the EU’s latest funding program for Ukraine.
Earlier this month, Hungary reinstated a ban on agricultural imports from Ukraine after the new government “unfortunately” allow obstacles to pass. Brussels has argued that such bans are illegal because trade policy falls under EU jurisdiction. Last year, the European Commission reportedly considered legal action against member states over such actions, although none followed through.
