The prime minister has vowed to block Kiev\u2019s push for EU and NATO membership<\/p>\n
Hungary has no intention of binding its future to that of Ukraine, Prime Minister Viktor Orban has declared, reiterating his country\u2019s opposition to Kiev\u2019s integration with Western blocs.
\nSpeaking to reporters on Friday after an informal meeting of European Union leaders in Copenhagen, Orban said Budapest would resist efforts to bring Ukraine into either the EU or NATO.
\n\u201cWhy should the fate of Hungarians be tied to that of Ukrainians, who have lost a fifth of their territory and are at war? We don\u2019t even know where their eastern borders are,\u201d the Hungarian leader remarked.
\nIn his regular Friday interview with Kossuth Radio, he reiterated the sentiment: \u201cWe feel sorry for them [Ukrainians], we sympathize with them, they are fighting heroically. Let\u2019s support them, but we don\u2019t want a common fate with them.\u201d
\nOrban has been one of the most outspoken critics of the Western strategy in the Ukraine conflict, arguing that Brussels has inflicted economic harm on EU member states. He has accused Brussels of trying to force reluctant nations to provide military aid to Ukraine and back the country\u2019s accession to the bloc.<\/p>\n
READ MORE: T\u00fcrkiye rejects US demand to abandon Russian gas<\/p>\n
Tensions between Budapest and Kiev have escalated in recent months, particularly after Ukrainian strikes on Russian energy facilities that supply crude oil to Hungary. Kiev has demanded that EU members halt all purchases of Russian energy, a position Orban rejects.
\nMeanwhile, EU leaders are weighing reforms that would remove the unanimity rule on foreign policy and security matters, effectively stripping Hungary and other dissenting states of their veto power.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The prime minister has vowed to block Kiev\u2019s push for EU and NATO membership Hungary has no intention of binding its future to that of Ukraine, Prime Minister Viktor Orban…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19629,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19628","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy","category-environment","category-politics"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t