Hungary Denies Russia Charge of Supplying Weapons to Kiev

Hungary's Foreign Ministry denied Friday a Russian claim that it was supplying Ukraine with weapons, which came after a pro-Moscow Hungarian website said that T-72 tanks had been delivered to Kiev.

In a statement late Friday Budapest called the claim "groundless", rebuffing an earlier statement from the Russian foreign ministry that Hungary had broken its international commitments on arms exports by supplying weapons to armed forces which it accused of infringing human rights in eastern Ukraine.  

The Russian statement referred to a recent article on a pro-Moscow Hungarian-language website hidfo.net which contained photos of tanks on trains that the website said were on their way to neighboring Ukraine.

In a foreign ministry statement sent to state news agency MTI Budapest said the tanks were being moved from one military storage to another within Hungary as part of a logistics operation.

"The equipment did not cross the border, and has nothing to do whatsoever with the events in Ukraine," the statement said. 

"This is not the first time that this unknown internet portal has published fake groundless content about the military," it added.

A source at Hungary's Defense Ministry told Agence France Presse the claims by hidfo.net were "ridiculous".