Péter Szijjártó, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, said the European Union is dominated by “an atmosphere of war”, with the vast majority of member states in favor of faster delivery of even more weapons to Ukraine, while “pro-peace players are under serious attack”.
Several EU member states believe the bloc still has not done enough to support Ukraine, Minister Szijjártó told a press conference during a break in a meeting of the Foreign Affairs Council in Luxembourg on Monday. “If we wanted to summarise the position expressed by the majority of European countries here, then we could say that we should spend more on sending even more weapons to Ukraine even faster,” the minister said. Meanwhile, those who speak out in favour of peace face “serious political and verbal attacks”, he added. On Ukrainian grain exports, he noted that the government had agreed to set up so-called solidarity corridors with a view to easing the global food crisis. But most of the grain and agricultural products exported by Ukraine got stuck in central Europe, he said. The European Commission had a duty to remedy the situation immediately and make it clear that the agreement between the EU and Ukraine applied to transit deliveries, Szijjártó said. Hungary is keeping to the original concept by banning direct grain imports from Ukraine while allowing transit shipments, he said.