Orbán and Stoltenberg strike deal: Hungary will not block NATO decisions on Ukraine, but will not provide support to Kyiv

The head of the Hungarian government, Viktor Orbán, agreed with the Secretary General of the North Atlantic Alliance, Jens Stoltenberg, that Hungary will not block NATO decisions regarding Ukraine but will not participate in supporting Kyiv.

The European Pravda writes that Hungary's Prime Minister stated this during a press conference with the head of NATO, Stoltenberg, in Budapest.

According to the publication, the head of the Hungarian government said that they reviewed the relations between Hungary and the Alliance at the meeting.

According to Orbán, "everyone knows that Hungary's position regarding the Russian-Ukrainian war differs from that of most NATO countries." But he thanked the NATO Secretary General for always "allowing" Budapest to express its unique opinion.

"Hungary has made it clear that it has no intention of blocking any decisions within NATO that may differ from what we believe to be our analysis of the situation.

At today's meeting, we focused on the fact that any operations outside (NATO) must be voluntary, and Hungary has been given the guarantees it requires," Orbán said.

He added that such an agreement meets the request of the Hungarian society, which "gave the government a mandate not to participate in the war" during the elections to the European Parliament.

The NATO Secretary General, for his part, said that he and Orbán "approved the modality for Hungary not to participate in NATO's support for Ukraine," which the Alliance plans to provide in the future.

In turn, Orbán emphasized that Hungary would not participate in these NATO efforts, and Stoltenberg "accepted this position."

"No Hungarian personnel will participate in this activity, and no Hungarian finances will be used to support it. At the same time, the Prime Minister has assured me that Hungary will not oppose this effort and will allow other allies to move forward," Stoltenberg said.

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It should be noted that Hungary and Ukraine have had almost no high-level contacts since the full-scale invasion of Russia in February 2022. However, there have been some lower-level interactions.

Earlier, Zelensky said that during a short meeting in Argentina, he asked Orban to name at least one reason why Ukraine should not be in the EU.

Moreover, the Hungarian leader also stated that he has 75 more opportunities to block Ukraine's accession process, as each stage requires the unanimous approval of EU members.

It is worth noting that the EU approved the allocation of 10 billion euros to Hungary. However, any further allocation of funds will likely be met with stiff resistance. The other €20 billion, which belongs to Hungary, is held under a separate procedure that gives Brussels the leverage it needs.

Hungary is also delaying the adoption of legislation allowing Ukraine to receive up to 2 billion euros from the European Union for armaments using profits from frozen Russian assets.

Hungary will participate in the peace summit in Switzerland on June 15–16, with the Minister of Foreign Affairs representing the country at the event.