Hungary not to supply arms to Ukraine
It seems that Europe is upping its military support of Ukraine despite the Hungarian decision not to arm Ukraine, as Sweden and NATO are arming the Eastern European nation.
Hungary will not send weapons to Ukraine because Budapest needs all of them domestically, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said Sunday.
"The Hungarian position will not change, as the Hungarian armed forces need all their weapons to be able to defend the country's borders," he told the Hungarian M1 broadcaster.
He explained that, unlike Italy and Germany, Hungary will not send weapons to Kiev in light of the Russian military operation in the Eastern European country.
At the same time, the Hungarian prime minister stressed that Budapest will support the Russian sanctions agreed upon in the EU and called all reports to the contrary "disinformation."
The Hungarian decision comes in parallel with a contrasting Swedish one, where Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson announced that her country would break its doctrine of not sending arms to countries in "conflict" and send military equipment, including anti-tank launchers, to Ukraine.
"Sweden is now proposing direct support for Ukraine's armed forces. It includes 135,000 field rations, 5,000 helmets, 5,000 body shields, and 5,000 anti-tank weapons" Andersson told reporters.
NATO also went along with the decision of arming Kiev, pledging to escalate its military deliveries to Ukraine despite Kiev not being part of the alliance. The deliveries will include anti-tank and anti-aircraft systems and ammunition to Ukraine, NATO Chief Jens Stoltenberg said Sunday.
The Ukrainian armed forces are escalating their actions against the Russian Armed Forces, as Kiev began mass using phosphorus-filled ammunition, whose use is prohibited under international law, in a bid to curb the advance of the Russian forces in Kiev near Ukraine's Hostomel airfield, Russian Defense Ministry spokesperson Major General Igor Konashenkov said Sunday.
This is not the first instance of Ukrainians attempting to kill their own - Kiev's ships attacked Russian naval vessels transporting surrendered Ukrainian border guards via US UAVs, Moscow's defense ministry spokesperson Major General Igor Konashenkov said Saturday.
Russia had for months been warning of the threat posed against it by NATO's attempts to expand eastward, which happened simultaneously with an increase in NATO military activity along Russia's borders, and batches of lethal weapons being sent to Ukraine, prompting Russia to request security guarantees from the West. Washington failed to provide the guarantees.
After the West did not respond to Russia's demands, and amid Ukrainian shelling on the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics, President Vladimir Putin initiated a special military operation in Donbass.