FM Szijjártó: Few countries did more than Hungary for peaceful settlement of Russia-Ukraine conflict

There are very few countries that have made more efforts than Hungary for a peaceful settlement of the Russia-Ukraine conflict over the past one thousand days, the foreign minister said on Sunday.

The war has been going on for more than a thousand days and Hungary’s position has not changed ever since it broke out, Péter Szijjártó told public broadcaster Kossuth rádió. Hungary’s position, which has since been proven true, is that this war has no solution on the battlefield where there is only death, suffering and more destruction, he said.

He said that the war claiming human lives in the ranges of a million had not opened the eyes of everyone, adding that weapon deliveries had not changed the balance of power. The Russian army is forging ahead and occupying more and more territories, Szijjártó said.

“The only solution is to be found solely at the negotiating table; there must be talks, but for peace talks a ceasefire in needed first,” the foreign minister said.

Szijjártó noted Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s proposal of a ceasefire and an exchange of prisoners in humanitarian steps with the upcoming days of the Christmas celebrations taken into consideration.

He also noted the prime minister’s phone conversation with the Russian president earlier this week that lasted for more than an hour.

Photo: FB/Szijjártó

Szijjártó said that as Hungary’s foreign minister he had informed his Ukrainian counterpart as well as the head of the Ukrainian president’s office [about that phone conversation] asking them to arrange a phone conversation between Viktor Orban and the Ukrainian president which he said was rejected “in a bit uneasy, yet cultured manner”.

“Hungary has tried to do everything [possible] under its mission for peace in the past half year, even more than what could be or would have been expected from a country this size,” Szijjarto said.

“We have made every possible effort under our EU presidency in the past six months to use the presidency for a good cause, for a ceasefire, for starting peace talks,” Szijjártó said.

Talking about a threatening email received by Hungary’s embassy in Paris on Saturday, the minister said that it had been sent from a country neighbouring Hungary and contained a picture of a bomb.

The minister said his colleagues in Paris had immediately notified the foreign ministry’s security centre. French authorities arrived at the scene quickly and very professionally with appropriate technology and search dogs. As no explosive device was found, the embassy staff returned to their offices to continue their work, Szijjártó said.

Putin and Orbán in July in Moscow. Photo: FB/Orbán

He said that in his assessment “the world is in an especially dangerous situation today”, with armed conflicts going on at several places, terrorist attacks taking place, terrorist organisations carrying out coup attempts”. “In this situation every threat needs to be taken seriously,” the foreign minister said. “And we have done just that, as the safety, health and the life of our colleagues is most important to us,” he said. He also emphasized that “everything at the embassy has returned to normal,” adding that security regulations had been reinforced.

On another topic, Szijjártó called it a step “less worthy of allies” that the United States had put Gazprombank on a sanctions list as “it was clear which countries in the central European and south-eastern European regions buy energy from Russia due to physical, infrastructural and geographical realities, and it is also clear that they pay through Gazprombank“.

The minister said they had worked hard with the Slovaks, Serbians, Turks and Bulgarians in recent weeks to find a legal solution that will continue to guarantee the security of their energy supply without violating US sanctions, and they have succeeded.

Answering questions about how they managed to disperse a false media report that Bashar al-Assad’s airplane had landed in Budapest, he said that “it was a very rough situation” and it was incredibly dangerous “to involve Hungary in such a red hot conflict”.

“It is possible that this situation arose as part of an orchestrated secret service operation that posed an extraordinary threat to Hungary, so I believe that it is necessary to investigate as thoroughly as possible where this started, who participated in it, and those who participated why they did so.

“Putting Hungary in danger cannot go unpunished,” he said.

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