“The war in Ukraine only has losers because people are dying in this war, so speaking about a winner in this context does not make sense,” Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó told BBC.
“We want this war to be finished, to be stopped as soon as possible because this war takes place in our neighbourhood”, and the impacts of the war are “immediate and severe”, Szijjártó said on an episode of BBC’s HardTalk. A significant Hungarian community lives in the western part of Ukraine, the members of which are dying in this war, he said. “They are mobilised to the Ukranian army and many of them are being deployed to the frontlines and many of them die,” he added.
“What we would like to see is an immediate ceasefire, we want a peace agreement to be reached finally which would stop killing innocent people,” he exclaimed. “Our position is absolutely clear since the very beginning of this war. We condemn the war in the strongest possible way. We stand up for the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine without any kind of doubt,” he stressed. “We want this war to be stopped as soon as possible because for us the number one priority is to save the lives of the people,” he underlined. If the war escalates, even more people will die, he said. “It would be very bad if NATO took part in this conflict because if NATO becomes a direct party to this conflict, it would mean a third world war the next day,” Szijjártó warned.
BBC: Szijjártó is a defender of Putin
The reporter of the BBC, Stephen Sackur, asked who the Hungarian government would like to see as the winner when the war ends. But Szijjártó did not answer that question. Instead, he kept repeating that there will be no victories and that an immediate ceasefire and peace talks are needed. The reporter pointed out though that would mean a 20 percent territorial loss for Ukraine. Szijjártó replied that during the peace talks modifications could be made in that regard. Sackurt deemed Szijjártó to be a defender of the Kremlin and someone who lived in a fantasy world if he believed Vladimir Putin would withdraw his forces.
HERE is the full interview.
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6 Comments
Ah. Now I know why there are no critical, public interviews of Politicians by journalists in our country.
This is a truly painful thing to watch. I feel for Mr. Szijjártó – whereas I’m not a fan and it could have been (even) worse…
Better prep, next time – no relying on soundbites and aggressive counters!
Has the Hungarian Government ever made a statement calling on Russia to stop fighting and specifically to withdraw from Ukrainian territory? That’s the only thing that needs to happen. What exactly does Szijjarto think they are going to negotiate while Russia is occupying Ukrainian land? Do you negotiate with someone who breaks into your house about which items he can take and which he will leave? How do you negotiate with the Russians who break every agreement they ever signed such as the Budapest Memorandum in which they guaranteed Ukraine’s security in exchange for Ukraine giving up the nuclear weapons they inherited from the break-up of the Soviet Union? The Americans actually pushed for Ukraine to give up their nukes and now Putin is using it to his advantage and actually threatening Ukraine and everyone else on a constant basis with his nuclear weapons. You cannot negotiate with Putin just as you couldn’t negotiate with Hitler. They are quite similar and this is who Orban allies himself with.
Another great example of the British state media being used as a political weapon.
Well, what can you expect after the Assange case, really?
But I feel proud, that our elected official is attacked so viciously by the BBC propagandist.
It’s a badge of honour.
@Norbert – There are no critical interviews by Hungarian journalists for two reason. 1. Fidesz owns the vast majority of new outlets. 2. Fidesz doesn’t give interviews to the heroic journalists that take them on in a professional matter. Check out these sites:
There are some other websites which have both written and youtube reports in English, as well as Hungarian, look for them.
@mark – this is usual and customary questioning by a journalist.
In the UK, a Government Minister will be tasked to make the rounds on television every morning to comment on the latest and greatest from Westminster. These politicians are submitted to similar, critical questions by the hosts (regardless of the network). However, they rarely make such a hash of the responses as Mr. Szijjártó did in this instance. He was ill prepared for the interview (or genuinely did not have good arguments he could respond with). A very sorry performance I’m sure he is not proud of.
Too many mistakes, too blunders, too many foot-in-the mouths, too many faux-pas, maybe it’s time to replace the FM with (“wonder kid”) GG to give him more experience before he dethrones our “King”.