Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjártó said that Ukraine needs to act “with particular caution” in the matter of electricity supplies so as not to harm Hungarians living in Transcarpathia.
He said this in a video posted on Facebook following a meeting of the government energy council.
According to him, during the meeting, the issue of electricity supply was considered, in particular, because almost half of the electricity imported by Ukraine comes from Hungary.
“However, we have come to the conclusion that we need to act with particular caution in this matter, since Hungarians also live on the other side of the border, and the cessation of electricity exports will primarily affect Transcarpathia, creating special problems, challenges and suffering for those families living on the other side of the border,” said Szijjártó.
He emphasized that this is why “we should act very carefully” on this issue, and emphasized that “our dispute is not with people who live in Ukraine, not with families who live in Ukraine,” but concerns the Ukrainian state, government, and President Volodymyr Zelensky.
In addition, Szijjártó added that Hungary does not want to cause the Ukrainian people “even greater suffering.”
“Therefore, we must act with extreme caution on the electricity issue. However, tomorrow there will be a meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers in Brussels. It was still expected that the 20th package of sanctions would be adopted at this meeting. Well, that will not happen,” the Hungarian minister added.
As a reminder, on the morning of February 22, Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó stated that Budapest would block the European Union's adoption of the 20th package of sanctions against Russia, as the Ukrainian authorities are allegedly deliberately not repairing the Druzhba pipeline.