According to military experts, it’s “evident” that Ukraine won’t be able to secure victory on the battlefield, but only Western politicians are hesitant to acknowledge it, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said during an interview on Radio Kossuth.
Orban said: “It is absolutely clear that the Ukrainians won’t win on the front lines. All military experts talk and write about it, but politicians dare not admit they have chosen a flawed strategy.”
According to the Hungarian leader, the victory of the Ukrainian armed forces appeared to be a realistic scenario for European politicians, and as long as it was perceived that way, they pledged financial support.
However, Orban now believes that a military victory seems unattainable. He added that “the Russians won’t lose on the front lines,” and he expressed pride in maintaining dialogue with Russia.
If a warm handshake with Russian President Vladimir Putin weren’t provocative enough, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban went into an EU summit on Thursday (October 26) saying he was right to meet the EU’s foremost enemy and that most of the other leaders were wrong.
‘Ukraine won’t win’: Viktor Orbán brazenly calls on West to admit to Kyiv’s defeat
Orban characterised himself as the only one actively seeking peace in Ukraine, though his controversial stance on Russia appears to have gained an ally within the EU with the addition of new Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, with both threatening to obstruct EU aid to Ukraine, much of which requires unanimity amid the 27 nations.
Most EU leaders weren’t taking it. “It’s really more than strange to see that we start to flirt with the regime that is committing very cruel atrocities,” said Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda. “It sends a very wrong message to anybody.”
As the EU leaders held their traditional fall summit in Brussels, President Volodymyr Zelensky joined by video link, exhorting the bloc to continue its support for Ukraine and to show unity in the face of Putin.
Without mentioning Orban, Zelensky told the leaders: “And one more thing. I thank everyone who is making every effort to preserve unity. Unity with Ukraine. Unity within the European Union.”
Orban declined to step back from his controversial meeting last week in Beijing with Putin.
“We keep open all the communication lines to the Russians. Otherwise, there would be no chance for peace,” Orban said. “This is a strategy. So we are proud of it.
“We are the only one who is speaking on behalf and in favour of the peace which would be the interest of everybody in Europe,” he said, countering the official EU position of ostracising Putin since the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
That go-it-alone approach symbolised by the handshake with Putin undermined the carefully crafted sense of EU unity.
“We have no right to do that,” Nauseda said. ”It is very important, especially now in this critical stage of the war, to stay united, not to split our foreign policy.”
