Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban inspects a border station with Ukraine in east Hungary, Feb. 26, 2022.(Photo by Attila Volgyi/Xinhua)
BEREGSURANY, Hungary, Feb. 26 (Xinhua) -- Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban checked a border station with Ukraine in east Hungary on Saturday and consulted with local authorities and border guards in the wake of the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
"The war is next door, so we have to be very disciplined," Orban said to journalists a few hundred meters away from Ukraine on the side of the road.
Currently, the flux of people leaving Ukraine was nothing like the migration wave of 2015, but Orban warned this could change in the future: "For the moment, the war is further back in Ukraine, but if the worst case scenario is to happen, it could spread to our immediate vicinity, and we will have to be even more disciplined."
Orban informed that he consulted with local mayors and officials, and promised the central government would provide them with everything they should need.
A white tent was set up on the curb of the road to provide the arriving Ukrainian women and children with water, food and blankets.
Two mobile heaters were also being set up to give some warmth to those arriving on foot.
About a dozen people were entering Hungary following Russia's special military operation in eastern Ukraine, many of them have relatives in Hungary, and many just transit through the country. Those on their own were seated in vans of the local authority and driven to a shelter provided by the city council of Beregsurany, a village in Szabolcs-Szatmar-Bereg county in eastern Hungary.
By Saturday morning, local authorities estimated that 1,600 people have crossed the border from Ukraine.
"When on Hungarian soil, we treat them as anyone else, they are also to be helped," Orban added.
He also reaffirmed that Hungary's position was completely in line with the Europe Union (EU)'s position about sanctions against Russia: "There is war: now is not the time to be 'smart', it is time to be united."
"Our border with Ukraine is over 130 kilometers long. In this situation Hungary's security must also be guaranteed, because for us that is the most important consideration. I made it clear that Hungary will not take part in this war, and it will not allow itself to be drawn into it," he also said. ■
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban speaks to journalists after checking a border station with Ukraine in east Hungary, Feb. 26, 2022.(Photo by Attila Volgyi/Xinhua)