Hungary to Deploy Air Defence Systems on Border With Ukraine Due to Increased Scale of Russian-Ukrainian War

Hungarian Defence Minister Kristóf Szalay-Bobrovniczky has ordered the deployment of air defence systems in the areas closest to the border with Ukraine. He explained this by fearing an escalation after allowing Ukraine to strike deep into Russian territory with Western weapons. This was reported by Telex.

The Hungarian minister said on his Facebook that he had ordered the deployment of air defence systems in the north-east of the country, explaining that the scale of the Russian-Ukrainian war is ‘larger than ever, and the war has entered the most dangerous phase’.

He attributed this, in particular, to the lifting of long-range restrictions for Ukraine and linked it to Putin's approval of an updated nuclear doctrine, in which Russia expanded the possible conditions for the use of nuclear weapons (as a reminder, the Kremlin leader announced this step in late September). 

Last weekend, when several Russian missiles were shot down near the Hungarian border in the Carpathian Mountains, Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó responded with a statement about the need to ‘step up efforts to bring peace’.

Following the news of the lifting of long-haul restrictions for Ukraine, Szijjarto accused the current US administration of ‘attacking the new reality’ that emerged after Donald Trump's victory and threatening to expand the war.

After Ukraine's first strikes, allegedly with Western missiles deep into Russian territory, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban convened a meeting of the Defence Council to discuss the threat of war escalation.