Steven N.
In an article published yesterday in Magyar Nemzet, the pro-government daily alleged that Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba recently asked the Ukrainian ambassador to Budapest, Lyubov Nepop, how to help the Hungarian opposition win the country’s upcoming election.
Sources in the national security establishment told the news site that contacts had been made between the staff of the prime ministerial candidate Péter Márki-Zay and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
The paper claims that Kuleba approached the Ukrainian ambassador in Budapest after Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó (pictured) announced at a meeting of foreign ministers in Brussels on March 21 that Hungary would not be supplying arms to Ukraine, nor allow such shipments to pass through the country.
The government addressed the war in Ukraine and the newspaper’s allegations at its session today.
-Péter Szijjártó announced in a video posted to Facebook, while also affirming that the charges made in the Magyar Nemzet article were true.
Szijjártó said that the Hungarian left had been exposed for its “regular consultations” between representatives of the left and the Ukrainian government.
The Foreign Minister also claimed that the opposition forces had promised to send weapons to Ukraine if they manage to form a government after the elections, and would immediately vote for sanctions on oil and gas headed to Hungary and the rest of Europe.
Recent comments by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to international audiences confirm these statements, said the Foreign Minister. He also said that the Ukrainian president was constantly attacking the Hungarian government for its decisions on the war.
Szijjártó acknowledged that while it was in Ukraine’s interest to obtain as many weapons as it could, he said that this was contrary to Hungary’s interest.
United for Hungary press chief Péter Zaránd responded to Telex‘s questions about the allegations of the oppostion’s contacts with the Ukrainian government by saying that the charge was a distraction from the news that broke the day before about Russian hackers infiltrating the Foreign Ministry’s computer network.
Péter Márki-Zay’s Twitter post does not pose a security risk to the Hungarian people, nor do any of his background discussions.
-Zaránd told the news site.
Late Wednesday morning, the Ukrainian Embassy in Budapest posted on Facebook that Ukraine had not intervened in Hungary’s internal matters, nor would it. They wrote that although Magyar Nemzet and similar publications were attempting to drag them into the country’s internal affairs, the embassy would not be party to such provocations.
[Magyar Hang, HVG][Photo: Péter Szijjártó / Facebook]
