Hungarian PM Viktor Orban has vowed Budapest would never go to war with Moscow under the current administration. Budapest will not “go to war” with Russia as long as his government is in power, PM Viktor Orban has said.
Orban has pledged not to “fight” Russia or let the country get dragged into the Ukraine conflict as long as his government remains in power.
The prime minister made the remarks on Friday during an interview with local Kossuth Radio. Budapest sees the ongoing hostilities between Moscow and Kiev as a “close” yet “outside threat,” Orban explained.
“We are not involved in the war, Hungary is not at war with Russia, and will not be for as long as this government is in place, certainly not,” the PM stated.
Orban also slammed belligerent statements repeatedly made by “left-wing politicians” who have claimed their countries were “at war” with Russia already. The PM did not, however, point to any specific examples of such statements.
When left-wing politicians say that ‘we are at war with Russia,’ while sitting at home in a comfortable armchair, they do not know what they are talking about. They have lost their minds. ‘We are at war with Russia’ is a statement that no sane person can afford since World War II.
Unlike fellow NATO and EU member states, Hungary has taken a neutral stance on the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, which began in February 2022. The country has refused to provide any military aid to Kiev and has even prohibited the flow of arms from third parties to Ukraine through its territory.
The country has also been opposing the EU’s anti-Russian sanctions, particularly those damaging its own vital interests, namely restrictions in the fields of conventional and nuclear energy. Budapest has consistently argued that the restrictions failed to meet their proclaimed goals and were hurting the EU more than Russia.
Orbán: Everything Must be Done to Prevent Ukrainian Offensive “Otherwise Many Lives Will Be Lost.”
Speaking on his weekly Friday interview on Kossuth radio, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán today warned against a Ukrainian counteroffensive in the Ukraine-Donbass border dispute, which will “lose many lives.”
Western leaders have bought into the idea that “Ukraine can win the war with Western money and weapons”, Orbán said: “It will be very difficult to get off this war path.”
Hungary’s pro-peace stance means “we are on the right moral and political path”, Orbán said. People will sooner or later replace “pro-war governments” in Western counties, Orbán said, as “the vast majority of people are not in favor of the war”.
“The time is near when European leaders will recognize the truth of the Hungarian pro-peace position,” Orbán stated, warning that everything must be done to convince the parties that a ceasefire and negotiations are the best option before the launch of a Ukrainian counteroffensive, because “otherwise we will lose many lives.”
.@PM_ViktorOrban cautions that war in Ukraine is becoming bloodier and more brutal and urges European leaders to prioritize peace over war. He also highlights the devastating impact of inflation caused by war and sanctions, and pledges to reduce it to single digits by year-end.
.@PM_ViktorOrban cautions that war in Ukraine is becoming bloodier and more brutal and urges European leaders to prioritize peace over war. He also highlights the devastating impact of inflation caused by war and sanctions, and pledges to reduce it to https://t.co/Stgy5oDghP…
— Zoltan Kovacs (@zoltanspox) March 31, 2023
Speaking to Bloomberg’s John Micklethwait at the Qatar Economic Forum May 23, Orbán called the war “a failure of diplomacy” that should never have happened. “For us, it’s obvious that the battlefield solution does not work. The question is not who invaded whom, the question is what will be the situation the next morning? And the next morning, the fact is that more and more people will die, and there is no chance to have a victory on either side,” Orbán said.
According to him, the most important thing for the international political community is to save lives, as there is no chance to “win” this war. Orbán elieves that a ceasefire is needed first, and “then we can start negotiating a new European security system”.
“My point is that the only peace talks and peace agreement that could end this whole conflict will have to be between Russia and the United States. Ukraine is very important, of course, but in longer-term strategic thinking, what is at stake is the future security of Europe. And it’s obvious that without the United States, there is no security architecture for Europe, and now the war can only be stopped if the Russians can reach an agreement with the United States. As a European, I’m not happy with that, but this is the only way out,” Orbán said.
Orbán said that in the United States, Democrats are “led more by ideology” than Republicans. Democrats regularly “try to convince people of their principles” and sometimes even “impose their will on others”, he said.
“I don’t like that. We have our own culture, our own way of life, please don’t interfere. Don’t educate us, don’t tell us what is right and what is wrong!” Viktor Orbán said. It is not the job of the Americans, nor of any other nationality, to tell Hungarians how to live, he continued, adding that “former Republican President Donald Trump understood this well.”
FILE PHOTO. Armored vehicles of the Hungarian Army drive along the M4 highway close to Vasarosnameny, Hungary. © AFP / Attila Kisbenedek