Hungary wants the war not to spread beyond Ukraine’s borders

With the war in Ukraine becoming increasingly brutal, it is crucial that the United Nations play an even more active role in creating peace in the country, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said in New York on Wednesday.

Addressing a session of the UN General Assembly on the financing of peacebuilding activities, Szijjártó said he was from a country that faced multiple security challenges, noting the ongoing war in neighbouring Ukraine. He said those who were born in the late 1970s or later “had a legitimate hope that during our lifetime we will not have to be faced with war in our neighbourhood.” “But this legitimate hope of ours has been recently destroyed.”

“We, the Hungarian people did not want this war in the neighbourhood and we do not want this war to be continued,”

he said. “We do want peace.”

Szijjártó said that each and every second of the war in Ukraine posed a security risk to Hungary. Under such circumstances the government’s priority is to maintain peace in Hungary and guarantee the security of the country and its people. He urged the international community to make every effort to ensure that the war came to an end as soon as possible and that it did not spread beyond Ukraine’s borders.

• Read also: Hungarian government made a generous offer to Ukrainian soldiers!

To avoid Hungary getting dragged into the war, the government has decided not to send weapons to Ukraine and to ban the transit of weapons deliveries through Hungary’s territory, the minister noted. Had Hungary not done this, it would have risked becoming part of the conflict, he added.