Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said on Saturday: "We will not allow Hungarian people to be made to pay the price of war! That's why we say no to Ukraine's European Union accession."
In a video featuring a detail of an interview published on Thursday, PM Orbán said that EU leaders had announced that they wanted Ukraine to become a member of the EU by 2030. "This must be prevented," he said, adding that "it can be done now but not later".
Commenting on a referendum initiated by the government in connection with Ukraine, PM Orbán said all Hungarian citizens were being given the chance "to decide on the matter".
"They want to integrate a country that is not sovereign. We do not know where the eastern borders of this country are and how big its territory is," he said. "We do not know the size of its population. It cannot maintain itself. It is maintained by the US and us," he added.
PM Orbán said that at the same time, "Ukraine demands we, actually the EU, undertake responsibility for decades to support a Ukrainian army of one million soldiers from Europeans' money".