(Kyiv) Kyiv accused Hungary on Thursday of “helping Putin” in the war against Ukraine, the day after statements by Viktor Orban who said he was ready to buy Russian gas in rubles, contrary to other countries of the European Union.
Posted at 1:00 p.m.
“Budapest has taken the next step: helping Putin to continue his aggression against Ukraine,” Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleg Nikolenko said in a statement, saying that Hungary “was destroying the unity of the EU” with this position.
“It is an unfriendly position towards our state,” he insisted, also deeming “cynical” the Hungarian proposal to organize Russian-Ukrainian peace talks in Budapest.
“If Hungary really wants to end the war, this is what it must do: stop destroying EU unity, support new sanctions against Russia, help Ukraine militarily,” he said. -he adds. “And not create additional sources of financing for the Russian military machine”.
Mr. Nikolenko also denounced “the reluctance of the Hungarian leaders to recognize Russia’s responsibility for the atrocities of the Russian army in Boutcha, Irpin and Gostomel”, not far from Kyiv, where several hundred corpses wearing civilian clothes have been discovered in recent days.
This “could reinforce Russia’s sense of impunity and encourage it to commit new atrocities”, he warned.
Russia has “categorically” rejected these accusations, denouncing “a staging” Ukrainian.
Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said later in the day that his Ukrainian counterpart had not contacted him and called on Kyiv to “stop insulting us”.
The Ukrainians are “asking and waiting for help, while attacking us,” he told Hungarian public television from Brussels, where he was attending a NATO meeting.
The European Union is considering a fifth set of sanctions on Thursday which, for the first time, includes measures in the energy sector with an embargo on coal purchases from Russia and the closure of EU ports to ships Russians.
The two daughters of President Vladimir Putin and several Russian oligarchs should be added to the EU blacklist, according to the document seen by AFP.