​Media reports that Hungary has vetoed EU financial aid for Ukraine are “fake news,” Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán wrote on Twitter on Tuesday, as cited by MTI and Agerpres.

“All the news today talked about how Hungary opposed financial aid to Ukraine. This is “fake news”. Hungary is ready to provide financial assistance to Ukraine on a bilateral basis. No veto, no blackmail,” wrote the Hungarian Prime Minister.

“However, we want to convince the EU member states that the common EU debt is not the solution. If we continue to sink into a community of debt, we will not be able to turn back. We envision a different future for Europe. One built on strong member states, instead of huge piles of joint debts,” Viktor Orbán added.

Orbán’s comments came after the Czech Republic announced earlier on Tuesday that Hungary had vetoed the European Commission’s 18 billion euro 2023 macro-financial aid package for Ukraine.

The government in Prague also said that for this reason the European Union will now look for a solution – with the support of the rest of the states in the community bloc – to direct financial aid to Kyiv.

The EU will look for an alternative solution to support Ukraine in the winter

“We couldn’t accept the package, but we didn’t lose heart. Our ambition, as before, is to start sending aid to Ukraine at the beginning of January 2023, said Czech Finance Minister Zbynek Stanjura, whose country holds the EU presidency, at the end of a short discussion on the issue held at a meeting of the relevant European ministers (ECOFIN) in Brussels.

The opposition of Hungary, the only one of the 27 EU members to refuse this aid, comes in the context of negotiations on other matters that concern Budapest: the approval of the recovery plan of this central European country and the freezing of European funds for non-compliance with the law.

At the end of last month, Hungary also blocked the organization of a joint Ukraine-NATO meeting as part of the alliance summit in Bucharest.

“Let’s hope that peace will come as soon as possible, and then we can discuss this issue again,” Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijarto said at the time.

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