PM Orbán: pre-war Ukraine was already a dysfunctional state

Orbán told public broadcaster Kossuth Rádió yesterday that Ukraine was a dysfunctional state, unable to run its economy already before the war, 444.hu wrote. Therefore, he said, Ukraine would need around 5 billion euros a month to avoid a collapse, adding that the question was who would give them this money.

Talks are ongoing about how the burden should be shared by Europe and the United States, he said. The discussions are also focused on how the burdens should be distributed among EU member states if Europe contributes to aiding Ukraine and whether even everyone wants to contribute, he added.

Hungary will have to decide whether to participate in that process, Orbán said. Hungary is facing difficult decisions, including “whether we have money to give to the Ukrainians, and in what form we should give it: together with the others, separately, as a donation or a loan”, he said. This will only become clear over the next two to three months of EU talks, he added.

There is a “temporary lull” in the growth of gas prices, after European reserves have been refilled over the summer, Hungary’s prime minister added. Prices are expected to grow again as EU countries start to use their reserves in the winter, he said.

Hungary has concluded long-term contracts with Russia to ensure gas supplies, he said. Although the NordStream pipeline “was ruined by terrorist attacks”, the pipeline arriving in Europe via Turkey is still intact, “and Hungary won’t allow anyone to ruin this pipeline.”

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The price of Russian gas is tied to European stock exchange prices, and so high European prices drive price growth in Hungary, he said. Orbán slammed the European Union’s sanctions against Russia, saying that Europe was paying a “sanctions surcharge” for energy. Hungary is “mostly successful” in avoiding the consequences of those bad decisions, he said, “but we are on the same market as all other European countries, and Hungary suffers to some degree from the deteriorating situation there. That is why we are against the sanctions,” he said.

Sanctions were originally introduced as a tool to end the war swiftly and to punish Russia for launching the war, he said. “We made a plan and dug a hole for the Russians, but ended up falling into it ourselves,” he said. “The EU is now proposing to dig further, while Hungary is saying we should try to get out.” Those two stances clash at every EU summit, he added.

The prime minister said the latest National Consultation public survey on sanctions imposed in response to the Russia-Ukraine war “is important to help everyone realise we are all in danger”.

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Source: MTI