Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said on Monday that Budapest opposes the new package of sanctions, the 10th to be prepared by the European Union against Russia, saying it would be a “big mistake”.

“It has been proven that sanctions lead Europe to a dead end. Economic, political and security. It would be a huge mistake to put forward another package of sanctions,” the head of Hungarian diplomacy wrote on his Facebook page on Monday.

Sijarto is in Brussels for a meeting of foreign ministers of the EU member states. It is expected that at this meeting, among other things, they will discuss the tenth package of sanctions directed against Russia since the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine on February 24 last year.

Earlier, Reuters, citing senior sources, reported that the development of the new sanctions document should be completed a year after the start of Russia’s invasion, the largest in Europe since the end of World War II.

Viktor Orban calls for the lifting of sanctions against Russia

The Hungarian foreign minister’s comments on Monday came after Prime Minister Viktor Orbán reiterated on January 13 that sanctions against Russia are not working and should be lifted.

“If that happened, energy prices would immediately fall and inflation would instantly halve,” Orbán said, adding that “because of the EU’s false sanctions, we have to pay energy premiums.”

He noted that Brussels has a different vision of the future than the Hungarians, and that European officials are actually seeking regime change in Moscow.

Viktor Orbán told his ruling Fidesz party back in September last year that sanctions against Russia imposed by the European Union should be lifted, saying it would lead to an immediate 50% drop in the price of natural gas in Hungary.

The Prime Minister of Hungary has repeatedly stated that the record inflation in Hungary is related to the EU sanctions against Russia, although Budapest has started receiving additional supplies of Russian gas than it was stipulated in the contracts signed with Moscow, and even obtained a reprieve from Gazprom regarding the payment of natural gas. of gas supplied this winter.

At the end of August, Peter Szijjarto announced that the Hungarian government had signed an agreement with Gazprom to significantly increase the volume of gas supplied by the Russian state company.

Hungary also won an EU embargo on Russian oil shipments by sea after threatening to use its veto power to block it.

Follow the latest events of the 334th day of the war in Ukraine LIVETEXT on HOTNEWS.RO.