Hungary has consented to the European Union and Nato delivering weapons to Ukraine but will not be involved in the action on a bilateral basis and will not allow lethal aid to transit its territory, Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said in Pristina on February 28.

"Today we decided not to allow lethal aid to transit Hungary. The reason for this decision is that such deliveries might become targets of hostile military action," he said, adding that Hungary should not get involved in the war under any circumstances.

The government's stance rested on "the security of Hungary and the ethnic Hungarian community in Ukraine’s Transcarpathia region," he said.

His comments came after reports that a Hungarian flagged C-17 carrier took off from the Nato base in western Hungary, transferring 50 Panzerfaust-3 (anti-tank) and 200 Stinger (anti-air) rocket launchers as well as 100 sniper rifles and 30.000 ammunitions. The equipment was sent by the Dutch Ministry of Defence and will be transported to Poland.

Radical rightwing Our Homeland, which is balancing near the 5% threshold in support four weeks ahead of the election, has protested against Hungary’s direct involvement in weapon transfers to Ukraine and called on the government to halt these deliveries.

In his first public interview since the crisis on Sunday, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said Hungary won't give weapons to Ukraine, because "with those weapons, they could shoot at Hungarians living in Transcarpathia." The opposition’s reaction was that the prime minister misunderstands the situation, saying the weapons will go to Ukraine to defend itself and to the Russian forces.

Hungary’s strongman is also using the conflict to shape the domestic political agenda. With just a month to go until the crucial election, Orban is portraying himself as the leader who wants Hungary out of the military conflict and provides security, in contrast with the opposition, which according to the pro-government narrative, wants to drag the country into war by sending weapons and soldiers to Ukraine.

Orban has condemned Russia’s military intervention and stood by Ukraine’s territorial integrity, but unlike his EU or V4 peers, he has not come down hard on the Kremlin. While its V4 partners were calling for more and tougher sanctions, Orban has grudgingly accepted the EU’s list of sanctions, including cutting off Russia from SWIFT, as he feared the backlash from breaking unity.

But he has made it clear that energy issues, including the expansion of the Paks nuclear power plant (Paks II), must be left out of the sanctions list.

Maintaining ties with Russia on the energy front is vital for Orban as Hungary relies on cheap Russian gas. The government froze retail electricity prices in 2013 and keeping the bills low are key parts of his re-election campaign.

Orban’s balancing act over the Russian sanctions and his reluctance to stand fully behind his Nato and the EU allies prompted former Polish premier Donald Tusk to tweet on Monday that Orban and Szijjarto deserve something more than just medals from Putin. Seats on Gazprom’s board would be an adequate prize for their loyalty.