Hungary opposes Ukraine joining NATO, Russia will place nuclear weapons in Belarus

According to Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto, the Budapest government will not agree to let Ukraine join NATO or even the European Union (EU), on the grounds that Kiev continues to have "inappropriate" behavior towards the community of its people living in Zakarpattia province.

“I have raised the issue with the UN Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights, Ms. Ilze Brands Kehris, as nearly 100 primary and secondary schools for Hungarians living in Zakarpattia province are facing the risk of closure due to the provisions of the Ukrainian education law,” the Azerbaijan Government Press Service website quoted Mr. Szijjarto’s Facebook post as saying.

“I need to make it clear that Budapest will not be able to support Ukraine in its transatlantic and European integration under any circumstances, as long as Hungarian schools in Zakarpattia province are at risk,” Szijjarto added.

According to the Azerbaijan Government Press Service, the Ukrainian parliament passed a law in 2018 banning the teaching of four foreign languages ​​– Russian, Romanian, Polish and Hungarian – in education beyond primary school. Although Hungary has repeatedly expressed its concerns to Ukrainian officials in recent years, Szijjarto said Kiev “has done nothing to address Budapest’s concerns.”

The Ukrainian government has so far not responded to the statement by Hungarian Foreign Minister Szijjarto.

Russia to place nuclear weapons in Belarus

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on March 25 that his country will complete the construction of a facility to store nuclear weapons in Belarus this summer.

“The facility in Belarus will be ready for operation on July 1. However, we do not plan to transfer control of any tactical nuclear weapons to the Minsk authorities. This move was prompted by the decision of the United Kingdom to supply the Ukrainian army with depleted uranium munitions,” Putin said in an interview with Russia 24.

However, the Kremlin leader did not specify what type of nuclear weapons Russia would transfer to Belarus.

According to RT news agency, Russian President Putin and his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko held talks in early October 2022 with the agenda revolving around the possibility of the US placing nuclear weapons in Poland, a country that shares a border with Russia's Kaliningrad province and Belarus.

“Belarus is facing a potential nuclear attack from Poland, as Warsaw and Washington have held talks on ‘nuclear sharing.’ Since Belarus does not have nuclear weapons, we will have to take appropriate measures in response,” the Belarusian leader said at the time.

Poland calls on EU to send more ammunition to Kiev

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said on March 25 that he himself hoped that joint negotiations between the European Commission and a number of important countries such as France, Germany and Poland would speed up the process of transporting ammunition to Ukraine, as Kiev “needs it immediately”.

“We will need the European Union (EU) to help deliver ammunition from third countries to Ukraine. Since we don’t have enough ammunition in Europe, we will have to buy it from abroad,” Ukrinform quoted Morawiecki as saying at a press conference in Warsaw, Poland.

At the same time, Mr. Morawiecki also called on the Polish defense group PAG and many other enterprises to step up the production of ammunition. “It is difficult to imagine how many rockets and artillery shells are fired on the Ukrainian frontline every day. The Kiev armed forces fire from 2,000 to 6,000 shells every day, while the enemy army fires 10 times that number,” the Polish Prime Minister emphasized.