Hungary will install an air defense system in the northeastern part of the country, as the threat of escalation in the Russia-Ukraine war continues to rise, Kristof Szalay-Bobrovniczky, the Hungarian minister of defense, has said in a post on Facebook on November 20.
“We still trust that there will be peace as soon as possible, through diplomacy instead of a military solution,” Szalay-Bobrovniczky said in the video.
“However, to prepare for all possibilities, I ordered the recently purchased air control and air defense systems and the capabilities built on them to be installed in the northeast,” he said.
Newsweek has reached out to the Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs via email for comment.
On Sunday, it was announced that President Joe Biden would authorize Ukraine to use U.S. weapons to strike territory within Russia, a permission that Ukraine had been in pursuit of for months, but the U.S. had been avoiding over escalation fears.
The first U.S. ATACMS missile strike was launched by Ukraine on Tuesday, Moscow said, in an attack which has been regarded by Russia as a major escalation. Tuesday marked 1,000 days of the conflict, which began in 2022 after Russia launched a full-scale invasion into Ukraine.
Hungary, a NATO and European Union member, shares a border with Ukraine.
In a marked difference to other NATO and EU members stance on the Russia-Ukraine war, Hungary has been cautious and ambivalent, advocating for diplomacy whilst maintaining NATO commitments and a historically close economic and political relationship with Russia.
“The threat of the escalation of the Ukraine-Russia war is greater than ever,” Szalay-Bobrovniczky said. The minister was not specific about which parts of Hungary’s air defense system would be installed in the northeast.
After the news broke of the U.S. approval of the long-range missiles, a revised version of Russia’s nuclear doctrine, which had been approved by President Vladimir Putin circulated.
This version outlined the conditions under which Moscow could deploy their nuclear arsenal, which is the biggest in the world.
The revised version lowers the threshold for usage and provides Putin with the ability to respond to a conventional strike backed by nuclear weapons. This could include Ukraine’s recent U.S.-supplied ATACMS missile strike into Russian territory. Moscow claims this happened on Tuesday, when missiles struck the Bryansk area.
Shortly after the Biden administration’s approval of Ukraine using long-range missiles to strike inside of Russia, Péter Szijjártó, Hungary’s foreign minister blamed the West for the expansion of the war. Szijjártó said that “the supporters of the war in Washington and Brussels have launched a final, desperate attack on the new reality,” warning of “the extension of the war in Ukraine to the world.”
On Tuesday, The Associated Press reported that the U.S. would send Ukraine at least $275 million in new weapons, as the Biden administration tries to deliver as much support as possible before President-elect Donald Trump takes office in January.
Newsweek has reached out to the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs via email for comment.
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