Hungary Prime Minister Viktor Orban said Hungary will not support the European Union’s (EU) sanctions package on Russia, which includes an embargo on oil imports. Mr Orban said the current proposal banning Russian oil imports would amount to an “atomic bomb” being dropped on the Hungarian economy.
“We know exactly what we need, first of all we need five years for this whole process to be completed... 1-1.5 years is not enough for anything,” Mr Orban said.
Meanwhile, Russia on 24th February launched its invasion of Ukraine. And, according to the latest updates, Evacuation operations are continuing from the besieged southern city of Mariupol with 40 civilians rescued on Friday, Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy confirmed in his latest national address. Three evacuation buses left the besieged Azovstal steel plant in the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol on Friday, according to Russian media reports. However, the latest US military aid package to Ukraine, announced by president Joe Biden on Friday, is worth $150m. Germany will also send seven self-propelled howitzers to Ukraine, on top of five artillery systems the Dutch government has already pledged, the German defence minister, Christine Lambrecht, said. Also, the UK government has said it will give Ukraine 287 mobile generators in addition to 569 generators it had donated earlier.