President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that he plans to discuss with Peter Magyar, whose political force “Tisa” won the parliamentary elections in Hungary, the return to Ukraine of Oschadbank funds detained by Hungary.
Zelenskyy spoke about this in an interview, part of which was aired on the telethon on Sunday evening, April 19.
“Well, I would still like to return the money. They took some money from us, let's say. Who should we talk to? We'll talk to Magyar. I think we should return it. Orban simply stole this money,” Zelensky said.
In general, speaking about the victory of the Magyar party in the elections in Hungary, Zelensky noted that this is a window of opportunity for Ukraine, Hungary, and the countries of the European Union.
The President emphasized that the Druzhba oil pipeline is a sensitive issue. According to him, it will be ready for operation by the end of April.
“The EU knows my position: I do not support the sale of Russian oil. I know that the Hungarians have this condition. The Germans, like all EU countries, say: 'Well, look, we agreed with the Hungarians that it can work for them by 2027, but they must confirm an alternative source during this time.' Therefore, we, for our part, will fulfill what we promised by the end of April,” Zelensky said.
He added that he expects the Hungarian side to fulfill what they promised and unlock 90 billion euros for Ukraine. And the European Union will agree “with the Hungarians, with the new government and with others.”
“Ukraine has done everything, open the first cluster for us and then let's not slow down, step by step, to open clusters for us, bringing us closer to EU membership. I believe that each of these parties today has a chance to restore respect for each other,” Zelensky said.
Zelensky said that the elections in Hungary are a strategic loss for Orban.
“You can't always win with hatred. You can tactically win with hatred, but strategically you can definitely lose,” the president noted.
He added that he did everything to improve relations with Orban.
“Even when he hung billboards with hatred for me, I said that I belong to the choice of the people of Ukraine. Hatred for me is a projection of hatred for Ukrainians. He built a campaign on hatred for Ukrainians, and the Hungarians showed him, the people of Hungary showed: ‘Look, we don’t agree with this,’” Zelensky said.