Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó has not ruled out backing Western sanctions against Russia, despite calling previous EU sanctions against the Kremlin a “failure.”
Speaking at an event in London on Tuesday, April 8th, the minister said “our decision in the future will be determined by the circumstances in the future.”
The conservative government of Hungary has been critical of EU sanctions saying they have harmed the European economy more than Russia’s.
However, the government of Viktor Orbán, who is a strong ally of U.S. President Donald Trump, could back U.S.-led sanctions if Trump uses them to punish Russian President Vladimir Putin for failing to accept his Ukraine ceasefire deal, Szijjártó said in London.
Trump has been trying to strike a deal between Ukraine and Russia on ending the war that has lasted for more than three years but the negotiations have not yet produced any major results.
Hungary has been the only EU member state since the beginning of the war that, in line with Trump, has advocated for peace talks instead of fuelling the war by providing military aid to Ukraine.
Péter Szijjártó warned on Tuesday that Hungary would veto Ukraine joining the EU unless Kyiv changed laws which restrict the rights of the Hungarian minority in Ukraine.
