Hungary to install air defence system near Ukraine border

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BUDAPEST (Reuters) – Hungary is going to install an air defence system in the northeastern part of the country as the threat of an escalation of the Ukraine-Russia war is “greater than ever”, its defence minister said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday lowered the threshold for a nuclear strike in response to a broader range of conventional attacks, after the United States allowed Ukraine to fire American missiles deep into Russia.

Ukraine used U.S. ATACMS missiles for the first time on Tuesday, Moscow said, an attack regarded by Russia as a major escalation.

“We still trust that there will be peace as soon as possible, through diplomacy instead of a military solution,” Kristof Szalay-Bobrovniczky said in a video posted on his Facebook late on Wednesday.

“However, to prepare for all possibilities, I ordered the recently purchased air control and air defence systems and the capabilities built on them to be installed in the northeast,” he said after a meeting of the Defence Council that was convened by Prime Minister Viktor Orban to discuss the developments in Ukraine.

“The threat of the escalation of the Ukraine-Russia war is greater than ever,” Szalay-Bobrovniczky said.

Hungary, a NATO and European Union member, shares a border with Ukraine.

The minister did not specify which parts of Hungary’s air defence system would be installed in the northeast.

Hungary’s military, currently undergoing a modernisation program, bought the French Mistral air defence systems alongside four other EU countries last year. In 2020 Hungary agreed to buy NASAMS air defence systems from Norway’s Kongsberg and U.S. arms manufacturer Raytheon Technologies.

The minister said some units of the Hungarian military were also on high alert.

(Reporting by Anita Komuves; Editing by Alison Williams)