Hungarian government to install air defense systems in northeastern Hungary

Defense Minister Kristóf Szalay-Bobrovniczky has ordered the placement of air defense equipment in the north-eastern part of Hungary, the region closest to Ukraine. In a video posted on Facebook, the Defense Minister justified the move by saying that "the Russian-Ukrainian war has entered its most dangerous phase so far".

The reason for this, Szalay-Bobrovniczky argues, is that the Western powers have granted permission to the Ukrainians to use the long-range weapons received from them against targets within Russia, which, in the minister's words, is "why" Russia has changed its nuclear doctrine. Vladimir Putin indeed announced the modification to Russia's nuclear doctrine only after the US administration had authorised the limited deployment of longer-range tactical missiles on Russian territory, but such a move takes months to prepare and the preparations thus had to precede the US decision.

The doctrine allows Russia to respond with a nuclear strike to attacks on its territory carried out with Western weapons. However, it can be assumed that such a nuclear strike would not be launched against the north-eastern part of Hungary. The region is much more vulnerable to Russian missile strikes such as the one Russia recently launched against Transcarpathian territories near the Hungarian border. This happened well before news broke of the decision to allow the deployment of US ATACMS ballistic missiles, the British Storm Shadow and its French variant, the SCALP cruise missile to be used against Russian targets. Following the missile strike against targets in Transcarpathia, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó advocated for stepping up peace efforts.