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Viktor Orbán: Statements met with criticism
Photo: BERNADETT SZABO / REUTERS
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has said that Ukraine is "unacceptable" and the country has now summoned the Hungarian ambassador.
This was announced by the spokesman for the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Oleh Nikolenko.
As Nikolenko writes on Facebook, Orbán compared Ukraine to Afghanistan in front of reporters and called it "the country of no one".
The Ukrainian news agency Interfax also reported.
In an interview with Hungarian state radio, Viktor Orbán said Germany's decision to send Leopard tanks to Ukraine was emblematic of the growing role Western countries are playing in the war, according to the AP news agency.
Instead of arming Ukraine, the West should seek "a ceasefire and peace talks," Orbán said, without specifying what he believed such talks would mean for Ukraine's future territorial integrity.
The announcement of the ambassador's summons marks a new low in relations between the two neighbors. Hungary has repeatedly criticized the European Union's sanctions against Russia, claiming they have not significantly weakened Moscow while threatening to destroy Europe's economy.
It was also discussed whether Hungary wanted to force the Europeans to release subsidies for Budapest.
Read more about it here .
“Another condescending statement by Viktor Orbán about Ukraine.
Such statements are categorically unacceptable,” wrote Oleh Nikolenko on Facebook.
"Budapest continues its course of willful destruction of Hungarian-Ukrainian relations, thereby severely undermining the possibility of further dialogue between the two neighboring countries."
The Hungarian ambassador will be summoned to the Foreign Ministry of Ukraine for an open discussion.
"We reserve the right to take other measures." Nikolenko did not write what that might be.
ani/Reuters/AP