Number of Hungarians who died in the war in Ukraine revealed

“We Hungarians are the only ones to have shed blood in that war, while those criticising us have not,” PM Viktor Orbán said yesterday in the 31st Bálványos summer university in Central Romania. “Therefore Hungary has the right, as a neighbouring country, to say that peace is the only solution. Peace is the only solution to save lives and the only antidote to wartime inflation and the economic crisis triggered by the war.”

Orbán highlighted that Hungarians were the only ones besides the Ukrainians who had “shed blood” in the war, citing official data indicating that 86 Hungarians have died in the conflict so far. Because of this, he added, Hungary had a right to say as a neighbouring country that peace was the only solution.

All wars can be examined from various points of view, but the main aspect of every war is that “mothers grieve for their children and children lose their parents,” he said, adding that this approach needed to be considered before all others even when it came to politics.

This, he said, meant that the Hungarian government’s main responsibility was to ensure that Hungarian parents and children are not put into such a situation.

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At the same time, Orbán said, there were countries that were critical of Hungary, saying it was not committed enough to the Ukrainian side. “But they’re far away and at best they are providing weapons and financial support,” the prime minister said. “Meanwhile, we Hungarians are the only ones besides the Ukrainians who are dying in that war,” Orbán said, citing

official data indicating that 86 Hungarians have died in the war so far.

Hungary is a member of NATO and acts under the assumption “that Russia will never attack the much stronger alliance”, he said. Orban added, however, that Russia had found itself in a “delicate situation” after the EU had decided to impose severe economic sanctions on it and send weapons to Ukraine. “So, although not in a legal sense, but they are practically part of this conflict, which poses a huge risk,” he said.

Orbán said Russia had made it clear that it wanted it guaranteed that Ukraine would never join NATO, insisting that the war would not have broken out “if Donald Trump were the US president and Angela Merkel the German chancellor”.

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