Péter Szijjártó, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, said Hungary's government does not support the European Union spending "further billions of euros of European people's money to prolong the war in Ukraine at a time when hopes of peace are stronger than ever."
Speaking in Brussels after a meeting of the EU's foreign affairs council on Monday, Minister Szijjártó said the bloc's policy regarding the war in Ukraine "has failed miserably in the past years". Sanctions had amounted to "own goals", he added, while arms deliveries only led to more and more deaths without bringing peace any closer.
"The only way to prevent further tragedies is to secure peace as soon as possible," he said, adding that besides intensifying destruction, a prolonged war would also raise the risk of escalation.
"All our hopes are now pinned on the US-Russia talks, which we want to succeed. Today I saw again that the pro-war European liberals do not want this," he said.
"European pro-war liberals have no interest in the success of the US-Russia talks. Indeed, they have conspired to thwart them... They said openly and clearly that they want to assemble a package of money and weapons enabling Ukraine to say 'no' to a deal someone has called bad," he said.
"They have conspired to spend Europeans' money on prolonging the war, on more weapons and more money for Ukraine. They are talking about sums between 20 and 40 billion euros ... and a stupefying volume of weapons," he said.
Hungary will vote against "all such actions" and initiatives that put the success of the current US-Russia talks at risk, he said.
Minister Szijjártó said it was "clear" that Ukraine could not become a member of NATO as it lacked unanimous support within the organisation. "Of course, one could fool Ukraine and keep them in the dark ... but that would be unfair to Ukraine."
Meanwhile, the EU will have to decide on extending sanctions on Russian and Belarusian citizens until March 10, Minister Szijjártó said. Hungary's vote "will be strongly influenced by how the European Commission fulfils its earlier promises," he added.
He said the EC "recently guaranteed, in four points, Hungary's energy security in respect of Ukraine, and they have already breached one of them." While the EC pledged that Hungary would be involved in negotiations on the resumption of gas deliveries through Ukraine, the first round of talks was held last week without an invitation to Hungary, he said.
"If this carries on, this will have a grievous effect on our vote... Already today they tried to push through the extension of sanctions on private individuals. We rejected this in no uncertain terms. There is no reason to rush, as the deadline is March 10, Russia-US negotiations are underway, and nothing should be done to jeopardise their success," Minister Szijjártó said.