Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban called for a ceasefire in the conflict between Moscow and Kiev as soon as possible. He warned that otherwise Ukraine will “lose a huge amount of wealth and many lives, and unimaginable destruction will happen. That is why peace is the only solution at this moment.”
However, he said fighting would not stop until Kiev’s main backer, Washington, decides that there should be peace.
“What really matters is what Americans want to do. Ukraine is no longer a sovereign country. They do not have any money. They have no weapons. They can only fight because we in the West support them,” the Hungarian leader explained.
He criticized EU sanctions imposed on Moscow over the conflict, saying they failed in both “bringing Russia to its knees” and in achieving peace in Ukraine. “Sanctions have not worked. I am surprised that we turned out to be incapable of formulating them appropriately,” he said.
Budapest has been one of the few EU capitals to maintain business relations with Moscow because it was “good for the Hungarian people,” Orban said. “I am fighting for Hungary. I do not care about Putin. I do not care about Russia. I take care of Hungary.”
The idea that Western military aid would enable Ukraine to defeat Russia on the battlefield is fundamentally wrong said Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
“I stand on the ground of reality. The reality is that the nature of cooperation between Ukraine and the West is a failure,” Orban insisted in an interview with German tabloid Bild on Tuesday.
Suggesting that the weapons, funding and intelligence being provided to Kiev by the U.S. and its EU allies would allow Ukraine to win “is a misunderstanding of the situation. That is impossible,” he argued.
“The problem is that the Ukrainians will run out of soldiers than the Russians, and this will be the deciding factor eventually,” the Hungarian prime minister said.
He rejected the interviewer’s contention that all of Ukraine would have been captured by Russia without NATO aid, describing this as “a hypothesis to which there is no evidence.”
He also commented on the failed revolt by the Wagner private military company, which occurred in Russia last week. “I do not see much significance in this event” because it has no effect on “the most important thing,” which is the prospect of achieving a ceasefire in Ukraine, he stated.
U.S. Involvement Prevents Ukraine Peace, Says Hungary FM
Near-term prospects for ending the Ukraine conflict are not looking good, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto told the Turkish Anadolu agency on June 14, 2023.
“Unfortunately, all developments are showing a totally different direction. The weapons deliveries, the very open reference to nuclear capacities, the offensive against each other from the two sides, the Ukrainian soldiers being trained in European countries, the very deep involvement of the Americans. So these are not heading toward peace for sure,” he said, during an interview in New York.
Szijjarto also pointed out that Ukraine is only able to fight Russia because of weapons supplied by the U.S., and that a long-term peace deal would depend on an agreement between Moscow and Washington.
Hungary has repeatedly called for a ceasefire in Ukraine and urged a peaceful resolution of the conflict. Budapest has also refused to allow the transit of Ukraine-bound NATO weapons across its territory, or training of Ukrainian soldiers on its soil.
Hungary is not opposed to Stockholm’s membership in principle, Szijjarto told Anadolu, but the parliament in Budapest is taking into consideration the “insults” and interference into the country’s internal affairs coming from Stockholm.
Multiple Swedish officials have accused Hungary of “backsliding” on democracy and the rule of law and accused PM Viktor Orban of acting like a “dictator,” as part of an EU campaign to compel obedience from Budapest.
“We never interfere in the domestic issues of other countries,” Szijjarto said “Such accusations give a reason to put this issue on hold for a while.”
NATO is hoping to finalize Sweden’s membership ahead of next month’s summit in Vilnius, but even if Hungary succumbs to US pressure, that would still leave Türkiye as a holdout. Ankara has repeatedly said that Stockholm needs to do more to implement the agreement reached last year, involving the extradition of Kurdish activists accused of terrorism.
Too Much Blah Blah In EU Politics, Says Orban
The European Union is losing its competitiveness and needs more people with commitment and passion, Hungarian PM Viktor Orban has claimed, according to local media.
There is an increasing amount of “blah blah” in EU politics, the Eurosceptic premier claimed on Friday after a meeting in Budapest with Santiago Abascal, the leader of Spanish far-right Vox party.
Orban said politicians in Brussels repeat things, the meaning of which “we do not even know,” again and again, but there is no action at the end.
According to the Hungarian prime minister, the EU needs politicians “who want something, who still have energy, dedication and passion.” In his view, those who think along such lines should work together.
One of the most vocal critics of EU policies, the Hungarian leader has lately been at odds with Brussels over a number of issues, including sanctions against Russia over the conflict with Ukraine. Orban has described the measures as “miscalculated” and warned they could destroy Europe’s economy instead of forcing Moscow to change course.
U.S. Senator’s Pressure On Hungary
Another media report said:
Top Republican Senator James Risch is blocking a US arms deal with Hungary worth hundreds of millions of dollars over its reluctance to ratify Sweden’s application to join NATO, the Washington Post reported on Wednesday.
In a statement to the paper, Risch – who serves as a ranking member in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee – said that until Hungary made progress in this regard, he would continue to stall on selling a $735-million arms package that includes 24 HIMARS batteries, as well as the ammo and hardware that comes with them.
“For some time now, I have directly expressed my concerns to the Hungarian government regarding its refusal to move forward a vote for Sweden to join NATO,” he said. “The fact that it is now June and still not done, I decided that the sale of new U.S. military equipment to Hungary will be on hold.”
Any major U.S. arms deal must be greenlit by top members of the Senate and House foreign affairs committees before the State Department is allowed to make a public announcement.
However, the Hungarian Defense Ministry pushed back on the senator’s comments, saying it did not plan to buy any HIMARS from the U.S. at all. It explained that during the previous government cycle officials in Budapest requested information regarding the systems with a deadline of March 2022.
“There was no response from the American side, and the ministry considered the matter closed,” it said.
Sweden and Finland applied to join NATO last May, ditching their decades-long neutrality after the onset of the Ukraine conflict. While Finland officially became the bloc’s 31st member in April, Sweden’s application remains in limbo, waiting to be ratified by two members of the alliance – Türkiye and Hungary.
While Ankara has demanded that Sweden crack down on Kurdish groups it deems terrorist, Hungary has been holding up the accession process due to Stockholm’s criticism of Prime Minister Viktor Orban over his record on democracy and the rule of law.
Relations between the U.S. and Hungary have also soured in recent months, with Washington sanctioning a Russian-linked investment bank and three of its executives in Budapest. The move came after Orban has repeatedly claimed that the U.S. and its allies were pressuring its country into arming Ukraine – a policy Hungary has been reluctant to embrace.
