German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius criticized Hungary for blocking further military aid to Ukraine at a meeting of EU defence ministers in Brussels on Tuesday. Pistorius said he was 'somewhat dissapointed or irritated by the behaviour of Hungarian friends' for blocking the aid. The move comes after Ukraine included Hungary's largest bank OTP in a list of supporters of Russia's invasion, prompting outrage from Budapest. A Hungarian government spokesman said on Monday that Hungary would reject new military aid unless the OTP bank was removed from the list. Budapest is specifically blocking an increase of the European Peace Facility (EPF), an intergovernmental fund that reimburses EU countries that supply military aid to the bloc's partners. Ukraine's National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption (NACP) placed OTP on its list of war sponsors at the beginning of May, reasoning that the bank's presence in Russia, even after the Russian invasion, was clearly showing support for the war.
Source: Ghana News Agency