Ukraine will not win the war against Russia – PM of Hungary

The Prime Minister of Hungary, Viktor Orbán, is convinced that Ukraine is not capable of winning the aggressive war that Russia has unleashed against it.

Source: Orbán in an interview with Bloomberg, European Pravda

Details: Answering a question, the Hungarian Prime Minister said that Hungary does not belong to the "mainstream European approach" in the context of the Russian-Ukrainian war.

Quote from Orbán: "My position, or, the position of Hungary is that from the very first moment, this war has been a failure of diplomacy, it should never have happened. Looking at what is going on on the front line, for us it is obvious that the battlefield solution does not work…

You rightly described the situation, that Russia invaded Ukraine, but the question is not who invaded whom, the question is what will happen the next morning. The next morning, the fact is, more and more people will die, and there is no chance of victory for either side. So, this is a war which just deprives many persons of life without having [any] results." 

Details: He added that emotionally the war is "tragic" and the hearts of Hungarians "are with Ukrainians". According to Orbán, Hungary understands "how much Ukrainians are suffering".

"But I speak as a politician who has to save lives... The most important thing for the international political community is to save lives, especially when you are convinced, as I am, that there is no chance of winning this war," Orbán said.

To a clarifying question, whether he is really convinced that Ukraine is not capable of winning the war, Orbán answered in the affirmative.

Quote: "My position is that, looking at the reality, looking at the figures,looking at the surroundings, looking at the fact that NATO is not ready to send troops, it is obvious that there is no victory for the poor Ukrainians on the battlefield. This is my position."

The head of the Hungarian government said that it is necessary to convince everyone of the need to reach the only possible solution, which, according to him, is a ceasefire. "After the ceasefire, peace talks should start," Orbán said.

He also noted that Hungary has a unique situation in this war, because "Ukraine is not a country far away".

"Ukraine is our neighbour. Secondly, we have ethnic minorities living in Ukraine, 200,000 or so. They are part of the war, they are conscripted into the Ukrainian army, and they die. We lose lives daily, Hungarian lives as well. So we consider this situation from a special angle," Orbán said.

Background: 

• Hungary has blocked another 500 million euro tranche from the European Peace Fund, which supports Ukraine with weapons. The reason is Ukraine's declaration of OTP Bank as a "war sponsor".
• Germany and Hungary argued on Monday during a meeting of foreign ministers in Brussels over the bank's role in the Russian war.

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