Hungarian Prime Minister: EU should stop transferring money to Ukraine

“Don’t send money to others if you need it to increase competitiveness. Therefore, stop transferring money to Ukraine,” Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban told reporters today, before entering negotiations with European Union (EU) leaders in Belgium.

Since the outbreak of the Ukraine conflict until the end of 2025, the EU and its member states have provided Kiev with a total of 210 billion USD in military, economic and political aid. The EU has 27 member countries with a total GDP of about 21.4 trillion USD.

Prime Minister Orban is considered the closest EU leader to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Ukraine applied to join the EU a few days after the war broke out, but could not proceed with negotiations to join the union due to the Hungarian Prime Minister’s veto.

President Volodymyr Zelensky on the same day announced that Ukraine “will do everything” to be technically ready to join the EU in 2027.

“I want a specific time. Moscow will do everything to stop this process if there is no specific date in the agreement signed between the US, Russia, Ukraine and Europe. They don’t even need to do this themselves but through certain European representatives,” Mr. Zelensky said.

The Hungarian Prime Minister then responded to the Ukrainian leader that “you are going in the wrong direction”. “Joining the EU is based on capabilities. Member countries set the conditions, not candidate countries,” he added.

Mr. Orban criticized President Zelensky for publicly proposing to join the EU in 2027 and considered it a security guarantee, while Ukrainian military commanders “issued harsh threats to Hungary”.

“Ukraine joining the EU will not bring peace, instead it will bring conflict to Europe. We do not need to argue that Hungary will not sponsor, arm or legitimize security threats against itself,” Prime Minister Orban said.

EU and Ukrainian officials have not commented on the above statements.