Hungarian ministry’s surprising reaction on alleged Hungarian arms deliveries to Ukraine

Some leaked Pentagon documents hint that Hungary may secretly allow allies to use its airspace to transport weapons towards Ukraine. Here is the reaction of the Hungarian defence ministry.

Hungary allows arms deliveries?

Politico wrote an article about how Hungary may support Ukraine with arms. The source was some leaked Pentagon documents. The information is interesting since the Hungarian government continuously said Budapest does not support Kyiv’s war with lethal weapons. Hungary welcomes the refugees and provides humanitarian help but does not support Ukraine with arms and ammunition because the government wants peace as soon as possible.

Politico wrote, based on a document, that Mi-8 military helicopters could bring weapons from Croatia to Ukraine, and Hungary opened its airspace for such deliveries. The Pentagon documents indicate that the most likely scenario is that the Ukrainian pilots would fly directly from Croatia to Ukraine via Hungarian airspace. But the operation remained in secret. The Hungarian defence ministry reacted to the allegations on Friday, 444.hu wrote. They said that Hungary would not send weapons, ammunition or soldiers to Ukraine and does not allow military deliveries to cross Hungarian soil. The ministry said the information of Politico is wrong.

Before, the Slovak defence minister, Jaroslav Nad talked about Hungarian involvement in training Ukrainian soldiers. Nad mysteriously referred to that and did not share further details then. Later, the Hungarian defence ministry cleared that they helped train military health professionals in Hungary.

Hungary left the “Russian spy bank”

Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s step to withdraw Hungary from the International Investment Bank (IIB) within 24 hours after the government’s decision on the matter was in line with national interests, the leader of Jobbik-Conservatives said on Saturday. While the government’s billboard campaign claims that “sanctions do not work”, the move “has shown that some well-targeted sanctions do have beneficial effects on Hungary,” Márton Gyöngyösi said, referring to US sanctions announced on Wednesday against some 50 persons and entities, including the IIB, for their ties to Russia, MTI wrote.

“Let us hope that… beyond quitting [IIB], the government will also get back the Hungarian taxpayers’ money because they used Hungarian capital to fund the bank,” he said.

Read also:

• International bank will cease operation after Hungary leaves it
• New US sanctions against Hungary: a lot of people can be banned soon