BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) – Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Saturday that the European Union was partly to blame for prolonging Russia’s war in Ukraine, reinforcing his government’s claim that supporting Kiev was a wrong strategy for Europe .
Speaking at an annual State of the Union address in Budapest, Orban said the EU had fueled the war by sanctioning Russia and providing Ukraine with money and arms, rather than trying to negotiate a peace with Moscow.
“When Russia launched its attack, the West did not isolate the conflict, but raised it to a pan-European level,” Orban said. “The war in Ukraine is not a conflict between the armies of good and evil, but between two Slavic countries fighting each other. This is their war, not ours.”
Entitled “Peace and Security,” Orban’s nearly hour-long speech focused mostly on the conflict in Ukraine, which is nearing its one-year mark on February 24.
The right-wing populist leader has repeatedly called for an immediate ceasefire, saying he and his government are “on the side of peace” and condemning his Western allies for aiding Kiev.
Hungary, he said Saturday, is “part of the western world, a member of NATO and the European Union, where everyone but us supports the war, or at least acts like it.”
In recent months, Orban has firmly opposed multiple rounds of EU sanctions against Moscow, arguing that they have done little to stop the war and have damaged European economies more than Russia. Ultimately, however, he always voted for her.
Hungary has broken with most of its western allies, refusing to provide military aid to Ukraine or allowing its transfer across borders and stalled some EU efforts to send financial aid packages to Kiev.
On Saturday, he said that while Hungary has provided humanitarian aid to Ukraine and taken in refugees fleeing the war, such aid “does not mean severing our ties with Russia because it would run counter to our national interests.”
“We maintain our economic ties with Russia and recommend the entire western world to do the same, because without ties there will be no ceasefire or peace talks,” he said.
Over the past decade, Orban’s government has cultivated ever-closer economic and diplomatic ties with Russia, making important deals to buy Russian gas, oil and nuclear fuel. Hungary has threatened to veto EU sanctions that would affect its access to Russian energy.
Saturday’s speech came as Orban faces numerous political and economic obstacles just 10 months after he and his party took office for the fourth consecutive term.
The Hungarian economy slowed into a technical recession in the fourth quarter of 2022, while the forint currency lost 7.5% against the euro and 15% against the dollar over the past year. Inflation in Hungary is among the highest in the EU at over 25%, well over double the bloc’s average of just over 10%.
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