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Hungary to Not Participate in Financing Arms Supplies to Ukraine From EPF

BUDAPEST (Sputnik) - Hungary will not participate in financing arms supplies to Ukraine from the European Peace Facility (EPF), but cannot interfere with other countries, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said on Monday.
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Earlier in the day, The Wall Street Journal reported that the European External Action Service (EEAS) is developing a new plan to provide financial assistance to Ukraine that will allow bloc members to override Hungary's veto on the European Union’s mid-term financial assistance to Ukraine worth 50 billion euros ($55 billion).
"Hungary has not sent weapons before and will not send weapons after this. And we are not ready to participate in any decision or process that will lead to an increase in arms supplies to Ukraine," Szijjarto told the M1 broadcaster, adding that Budapest "cannot and does not want to prevent others from sending weapons on the basis of a national decision."
Since the beginning of the conflict, Hungary has consistently opposed arms supplies to Ukraine with Hungarian parliament even issuing a decree prohibiting arms supplies to Ukraine from Hungarian territory. Hungary believes that arms supplies to Kiev only prolong and fuel the conflict.
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Speaking about sanctions against Russia, Szijjarto said that there were proposals to include ban on export of equipment that could be used in military industry to Russia during the recent EU foreign affairs council, but all these proposals are made just to make the union "look busy".
"As for the outline of the 13th package of sanctions,... some EU countries want to look busy. In my opinion, this is the main guiding principle. Of course, there were proposals to add new areas, new people to the [sanctions] list, and to ban the export of equipment and parts that can be used in the military industry. I don't even know what's left after the previous 12 packages of sanctions," Szijjarto told Hungarian reporters.
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