Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said every refugee arriving in Hungary from Ukraine must be assisted.
In an interview with the M1 news channel on Sunday evening, the prime minister said refugees arriving from neighboring Ukraine “can be assured they will be welcomed by friends in Hungary”. “We’ll feed them, shelter them and provide for their children,” he added. He said assisting refugees from Ukraine is an “elementary human, Christian instinct”. Commenting on the show of support for the refugees by Hungarians, PM Orbán said. Hungary “is a good country, with good people”. He said one doesn’t have to be a “rocket scientist” to see the difference between “masses arriving from Muslim regions in hope of a better life in Europe” and helping Ukrainian refugees who have come to Hungary because of the war.
The Hungarian Army has all of the weapons it needs to defend the country’s eastern border, if necessary, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said. He noted that Hungary started to develop its defense industry several years earlier, but “the factories are only now being built”.
“Even if it wanted to, Hungary couldn’t put military equipment at the disposal of others, but it doesn’t want to,” PM Orbán said.
He said Hungary’s defence industry developments were launched “in preparation for peace”, adding that the coming decade would be about “who can ensure security for their own country and the everyday lives of their own people”.
PM Orbán said the interests of Hungary and Hungarians are the priority, even in time of war, adding that decisions are being weighed “every hour” that will serve the interests of Hungary and of Hungarians. He said these include ones that involve energy policy sanctions that could negatively impact Hungarians.
He said a “war of information” is underway and cautioned against disinformation. PM Orbán said the upgrade of Hungary’s sole nuclear power plant at Paks and the matter of energy must be excluded from the issue of sanctions, “otherwise we’ll pay the price of the war, which nobody wants”.
PM Orbán conceded that he is “no believer in the benefit of sanctions”, but said “there’s a war going on, and it’s not the time to be clever, but to be united”.
“Whatever sanctions EU member states agree on, we’ll back them,” he said. Reports to the contrary “are lies”, he added.
PM Orbán warned that the longer the war drags on, the greater the risk that there will be targets in Transcarpathia, bringing the war “closer to us”. He said “those people in Brussels” can’t be counted on to defend the EU’s external borders, noting the lack of EU financial assistance for Hungary’s defence of its southern border during migrant crisis. “That’s why we need NATO, because if danger approaches Hungary’s border…only within the bonds of NATO can we ensure the full defence of Hungary,” he said.
Photo credit: MTI