It is now “not realistic” that the Russians will be able win the war in Ukraine, according to Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. Speaking on Kossuth Rádió on Friday, the one-year anniversary of the war, Orbán said that Western arms transfers have resulted in Ukraine now having more weapons than Russia, and that Russia cannot defeat NATO on its own.
The Prime Minister’s statement appears to be a complete shift from his position last summer, when he said at the annual gathering in Băile Tușnad, Romania, that the “Ukrainians will never win a war against Russia.”
And yet, on Friday Orbán reiterated his government’s position on the war, which is “both morally and politically correct, and moreover makes sense: the essence of the Hungarian position is for a ceasefire to be reached as soon as possible.” The Prime Minister argued that “we are not isolated” with this opinion, as most of the world thinks the same way.
Neither side will be able to win this war, Orbán believes, although he stated that “it is unclear what winning the war would mean.”
“We Are One of the Victims, Which Brussels Must Respect”
Orbán regrets that the topic of ethnic Hungarians living in the Transcarpathian region of Ukraine being conscripted, taken to the front, and dying in the war is not a more prominent part of the public discourse.
We are the only country in the EU that is neither Ukrainian nor Russian, yet has people dying in the war. We are one of the victims, which Brussels must respect.
-said the Prime Minister.
Orbán also talked about the possibility of letting Sweden and Finland into NATO. Since existing NATO members agreed to accept Hungary into the defense alliance, the country now has a moral obligation to support other nations that want to join it as well, he said.
But the Prime Minister admitted that many Fidesz MPs were “not completely enthusiastic” about agreeing to let the two nations into NATO, since they have “unabashedly spread obvious lies” about Hungary, such as the lack of democracy or rule of law in the country.
Although he agreed with this view, Orbán nevertheless stated that Sweden and Finland should be accepted into the defense alliance on principle alone. [Telex]
That will be a victim-claim nobody outside Hungary can take seriously.
All Orbán has done so far, is to sit on the fence and throw in hip-shot comments from under the shade of the NATO umbrella without contributing anything worth mentioning, while talking about peace-making in Egypt of all places.
Hungarian media may tell another story.
Thanks Michael (and also thanks to our publisher/editor/translator). Orbán’s “victim” stance is deserving of the same laughter that greeted the Russian foreign minister, who claimed a few days ago that “Ukraine attacked Russia”.
Of course, the current regime in Hungary is reminiscent of some of the Hungarian political leaders in power from say 1938- 1945, who used similar “victim” narratives to attack it’s neighbors, which also occurred in lock step with the enactment of the so called “Jewish Laws.” (3 in total). The subsequent joint cooperation with nazi Germany in the deportations of 1944-45 was -as you know-no accident for the Hungarian fixation on victimhood saw Hungary as the “victim” of not only its neighbors, but world Jewry including, but not limited to Jewish Hungarians.
The regime’s nazi occupation monument in Budapest perpetuates the Hungary as victim falsehood, which underscores the current fascination of Hungary as a “victim”.