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Hungary's Orbán pushes back on EU and NATO proposals to further assist Ukraine
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FILE - Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban speaks during a press conference with his Sweden's counterpart Ulf Kristersson at the Carmelite Monastery in Budapest, Hungary, on Feb 23, 2024. Hungary's prime minister says that he will seek to opt his country out of any NATO operations aimed at supporting Ukraine. Prime Minister Viktor Orbán told state radio on Friday, May 24, 2024 that Hungary opposes a plan NATO is weighing to provide more predictable military support to Ukraine. - photo by AP Photo/Denes Erdos, File
BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán on Friday pushed back against some NATO proposals that would allow Ukraine to use Western weapons to strike targets within Russia, saying that such plans have Europe “inching closer to destruction.” The nationalist leader has long opposed Western countries supplying Ukraine with military aid, and threatened to derail European Union financial support to Kyiv and the passing of sanctions against Moscow. He has also maintained close ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin despite his full-scale invasion of Ukraine, while ramping up energy deals with Moscow at a time when most EU countries have sought to limit the use of Russian fossil fuel. During a Friday interview on state radio, Orbán said that French President Emmanuel Macron's stance that he wouldn't rule out sending troops to Ukraine, as well as a NATO proposal that would allow Kyiv to strike military bases inside Russia with sophisticated long-range weapons provided by Western partners, risked escalating the war in Ukraine into a global conflict.