(MENAFN) Hungary has no intention of linking its future to Ukraine, Prime Minister Viktor Orban stated, reaffirming his country’s opposition to Kiev’s integration with Western institutions. Speaking to reporters after an informal European Union leaders’ meeting in Copenhagen, Orban said Budapest would resist efforts to bring Ukraine into the EU or NATO.

“Why should the fate of Hungarians be tied to that of Ukrainians, who have lost a fifth of their territory and are at war? We don’t even know where their eastern borders are,” he remarked. In a regular interview with Kossuth Radio, he added, “We feel sorry for them, we sympathize with them, they are fighting heroically. Let’s support them, but we don’t want a common fate with them.”

Orban, a vocal critic of Western strategy in the Ukraine conflict, has argued that Brussels’ policies have inflicted economic harm on EU member states and accused the bloc of trying to coerce reluctant nations into providing military aid and backing Ukraine’s accession.

Tensions between Budapest and Kiev have risen, particularly following Ukrainian strikes on Russian energy facilities supplying crude oil to Hungary. Kiev has called on EU members to halt all Russian energy purchases, a demand Orban rejects. Meanwhile, EU leaders are considering reforms to remove the unanimity rule on foreign policy and security, a move that would curtail Hungary’s veto power.

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