Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said on Friday he was “putting himself up against the wall” for his country before accepting a deal with the EU on Thursday on new aid to Ukraine and avoiding the risk of losing EU funds earmarked for Budapest from block treasuries. Reuters reports.

European Union leaders unanimously agreed on Thursday to provide Ukraine with an additional €50 billion aid package, sending a signal to the United States, where Congress continues to block aid aimed at supporting Kyiv in its fight against Russian encroachment.

The deal was reached surprisingly quickly after weeks of resistance from Hungary, which has refused to send weapons to Ukraine since the war began and whose relations with Ukraine have been marred by tensions over the treatment of some 150,000 ethnic Hungarians living in western Ukraine.

The Hungarian government “fought and got a guarantee” that funds belonging to Hungary “cannot be sent to Ukraine,” Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said in a message posted on Facebook on Thursday, in which he stressed that Hungary was not involved to war, does not send weapons and advocates peace, MTI and Agerpres report.

Orbán says it was a good deal

In another interview Friday on state radio, where he addresses the country’s public, Orbán said Thursday’s deal was good.

“I went to the wall,” Orbán said.

“If this agreement had not been reached and Hungary had continued to use its veto, then 26 member states would have agreed to send money to Ukraine… and would have taken the funds allocated to Hungary and – he would have sent them too.” Why would it be good for Ukraine?” Orban added.

“We do not send weapons (to Ukraine, no), we take money from Brussels and will contribute to the civilian financing of Ukraine.”

The Hungarian Prime Minister emphasized that he is worried that the European funds intended for Budapest will not reach Kyiv.

“We were concerned that the EU funds belonging to Hungary, which the country has not yet received from the European Commission, will sooner or later end up in Ukraine. And we were also afraid that in this way we would provide Ukraine with long-term financing without any control,” explained the Prime Minister of Hungary.

Hungary held negotiations “for a long time”

According to him, the leaders at the summit on Thursday agreed on a monitoring mechanism to ensure “reasonable use of EU funds,” and “Hungary received a guarantee that the funds to which it is entitled will not go to Ukraine.”

“After long negotiations, Hungary accepted this proposal,” he added.

After unblocking Hungary’s access to some tranches of EU funds in December, the European Commission is still withholding about 20 billion euros from Budapest amid widespread accusations that Orbán has undermined democracy in the country during his 13 years in power. His government denies the allegations.

Orban reiterated that peace talks between Ukraine and Russia should begin, as two years have passed since the start of the war, and “time was on the side of the Russians.”

Orban actively criticizes the EU’s financial and military support for Kyiv and maintains ties with the Kremlin following Russia’s invasion of neighboring Ukraine in February 2022.

​Viktor Orbán spoke against a package of 50 billion euros for Ukraine at the December EU meeting and from then until the current EU summit declared that Hungary would not give in to EU pressure and would not make compromises.

But Thursday’s meeting in Brussels didn’t even get off to a bad start, with European Council President Charles Michel announcing that all 27 EU leaders had already approved financial aid to Ukraine.

“He simply had no other choice”

Hungary got nothing, delegates from some of the main member states taking part in talks ahead of Thursday’s summit told The Guardian.

“He got nothing,” said one of the delegates. Viktor Orbán “simply had no choice. He was out of the game,” another source added.

Asked whether any of the leaders had threatened the Hungarian leader with consequences, given the talk of disenfranchising him or undermining Hungary’s economy, another source said:

“I don’t think they needed to make a big threat, the last few weeks have shown a lot of unity among the 26. So I don’t think the biggest threat gesture made at the weekend [sabotarea economiei] it made sense. But it was clear that he was really on his own.”