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Orbán: Europe may send peacekeepers to Ukraine, NATO invincible
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“Common sense dictates” that there can be no winners in the war in Ukraine, so a ceasefire must be arranged as soon as possible, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán told public radio on Friday. “Then peace negotiations can begin, at the end of which it will be clear what kind of peace will emerge,” Orbán said.
Pro-peace document in the UN
Orbán called the declaration adopted by the UN General Assembly on Thursday urging peace in Ukraine a “pro-peace document”, which he said was the majority view in the world regarding the war in Ukraine. Russia cannot win the war in the face of the weapons, energy and money the West is pouring into Ukraine, which means the possibility of Russia winning the conflict “highly unlikely by any calculation”, Orbán said. At the same time, “it would be wrong to think that Russia, a nuclear power, can be beaten,” he said.
“So neither party can win this war. Only the number of fatalities will grow by the hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands … so common sense dictates a ceasefire,” he said. Speaking on the first anniversary of the start of the war, Orbán said that besides the loss of life and assets, the situation was aggravated by the difficulty of “discerning the aim of the war”. When the aims are not clearly defined, “it’s easy to lose your way as there’s no reference point for your decisions, in a situation where you take on sacrifices for the nation and its citizens”.
While Ukraine was attacked and is protecting its freedom and trying to mitigate the consequences of aggression, “it is hard to see what that means exactly”, Orbán said. “Will Ukraine hit targets in Russian territory sooner or later? How far will they push back the Russian troops? Will Crimea come under siege?” “We Westerners made a mistake not only when we elevated the conflict into an all-European war but also when we failed to clarify the boundaries of support for Ukraine,” he said. “All European Union documents say: however long it takes, whatever it costs … But that slogan makes it hard to fight a war,” he said.
Hungary only NATO member that sacrifices lives
Orbán said Europe would continue to be drawn into the war. Soon, the Hungarian public would hear about proposals on peacekeepers or other troops being needed in Ukraine, he said. At the same time, the NATO treaty does not give the right to the alliance or oblige member states to participate in a joint attack on a non-member state, he said. NATO member states have the right to set up military alliances outside of the organisation but have no right to “drag other members into them against their will”, he said.
Hungary’s stance is based on the fact that NATO is a defence organisation rather than a war alliance, he said. Meanwhile, public discourse has fully passed over the war’s consequences on Hungarians living in Ukraine’s Transcarpathia region, Orbán noted. While the EU criticises and pressures Hungary, “we are the only people who are neither Ukrainian nor Russian and yet are forced to sacrifice lives,” he said. “More respect for Hungarians in Brussels, Washington and Kyiv!”