Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban called Western sanctions against Russia a “double-edged weapon” because they would drive up energy prices and inflation in Europe.
“The West has imposed sanctions on Russia, and we are part of the West. In a time of war, the most important thing is unity. But sanctions are a double-edged weapon, and we will soon pay for it. And the government is primarily working to minimize the direct damage from sanctions”, – Orban said on the radio Kossuth.
“The second problem is gas prices. Due to sanctions, the price of energy in all of Europe has increased by 50-60%. The third problem is that rising energy prices in Europe are leading to higher inflation… now, due to sanctions, there is a big threat high inflation. 50% of inflation will be caused by rising energy prices, and they will continue to rise… The sooner the war ends, the less damage will be,” Orban said.
Russia launched a military operation in Ukraine early in the morning on Thursday, February 24. President Vladimir Putin called its goal “the protection of people who have been subjected to oppression and genocide by the Kiev regime for eight years.”
For this, according to him, it is planned to carry out “demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine”, to bring to justice all war criminals responsible for “bloody crimes against civilians” in Donbass. According to the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, the Armed Forces strike only at the military infrastructure and Ukrainian troops, nothing threatens the civilian population. With the support of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, the DPR and LPR groups are developing an offensive. But there is no talk of the occupation of Ukraine, the President of Russia emphasized.
Western countries have begun a new round of the sanctions spiral, which has been unwinding since 2014. In particular, several major banks of the Russian Federation, including Sberbank and VTB, fell under the new restrictions, while the European Union, the United States, Canada and a number of other countries closed the sky for flights of Russian aircraft.
As the press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov said earlier, the Western sanctions are very serious, Russia was preparing for them in advance. He added that they require analysis and coordination of departments in order to develop response measures that meet the interests of the Russian Federation.
Due to censorship and blocking of all media and alternative views, stay tuned to our Telegram channel