Viktor Orbán: If the military goals are unclear, it is very easy to lose your way

In the Russia-Ukraine war, it is not clear on either side what the military goals are – said the Hungarian Prime Minister.

When in a war the military goals are unclear, it is very easy to lose your way … In the Russia-Ukraine war, it is not clear on either side what the military goals are

– said Prime Minister Viktor Orbán on Kossuth Radio’s programme “Good morning, Hungary”. According to the Prime Minister, this applies to Ukraine as well: they are of course defending their freedom, but it is not clear what this means. “Will the Ukrainians hit the territory of Russia with military strikes; how far back do they want to push the Russian troops; will the Crimean Peninsula come under siege or not?” asked the Prime Minister.

He went on to say that instead of localizing the conflict, the war has become pan-European in nature, dragging others into the war, but

we also made the mistake of not making it clear for ourselves where the limit to providing assistance for Ukraine lies

– he asserted.

Ukraine’s NATO membership problematic and irrational

As the Prime Minister stated, if one is familiar with the numbers, it is clear how much Russia spends every year on developing their weapons; if you add up the military spending of the European NATO states, it far exceeds the Russian sum. And if you add in the USA’s spending, reality sets in. “Today, nobody has even got a chance of winning if they attack NATO,” he pointed out. He continued that, 

If they attack us, we are obliged to help each other. That is why Ukraine’s NATO membership is problematic.

“NATO is a defence organization, not a war alliance, that’s why Ukraine’s NATO membership is irrational,” he underlined.

Regarding the Hungarian position, the Prime Minister asserted that: not only are we morally and politically right, but also logical. He said that people have a certain natural instinct to start cheering for or sympathizing with one side in a war.

A politician however, should not allow themselves to do this, especially when it turns out that nobody can actually win this war.

“The West has mobilized such immense resources in support of Ukraine, that defeating it has become impossible; meanwhile Russia cannot be defeated either,” he stated. That is exactly why the logical conclusion is to establish a ceasefire. To achieve that however, peace and negotiations are necessary.

The point of the Hungarian position is to have a ceasefire as soon as possible,

– asserted the Prime Minister. He believes it is important that Hungarians know that we are not isolated in our position supporting peace. He added that the UN accepted a pro-peace statement the other night.

Viktor Orbán also pointed out: “While Hungary is being criticized in Brussels and they are trying to exert pressure on us, we are the only country in the European Union that is – despite being neither Russian, nor Ukrainian – compelled to sacrifice human lives as our Transcarpathian compatriots are fighting this war.”

Regarding Sweden and Finland’s NATO membership, he said: “Turkey’s concerns lie in the fact that, in their view, terrorist organizations working against Turkey operate in Sweden. They are our allies, too, we must hear their voice as well.” He did point out though that he has asked the Parliament to vote in favor of Finland and Sweden’s accession to NATO. However, there has been some debate over this since Sweden is spreading lies about Hungary, he said.

Speculating against the people

Concerning sanction policies, the Prime Minister explained that Hungary has made it clear since the beginning that this is not a good direction because if our country implements these sanctions against Russia, it would kill our economy. He continued on to say that due to the increased energy prices from the sanctions, Hungary paid HUF 4,000 billion (~10.5M euro) more than the previous year. They will get this money and pay it, but there would be better things to spend it on.

Education, healthcare, innovation, developments. This money could go somewhere useful, but instead it is being taken out of the Hungarian people’s pockets. This is a badly executed sanctions policy and we will pay for the consequences

– he stated.

“We can assume that others predicted the same thing we did,” he said, continuing,

“Some may have speculated on the sanctions and their consequences. They knew we would have to import energy from the US. They knew the price of energy would increase. They speculated against the people and made a fortune.”

– he noted. According to Viktor Orbán, we must have extremely good faith if we want to believe that there was no collusion between speculators and decision-makers. The same thing happened with the covid vaccine procurement with the Brussels bureaucrats we believed in good faith, he pointed out.

During the interview, he reaffirmed that by the end of 2023, they will bring down inflation to single digit rates. Thanks to the government’s measures, the rate and size of price increases will drop. “The result of these measures will be single digit inflation rates by the end of the year,” he declared.

Children are sacred and inviolable!

In relation to child protection, the Prime Minister repeated: in Hungary children are sacred and inviolable! He highlighted that “this gender ideology is not some silly messing about. It’s not some funny game that boys dressed as girls and girls dressed as boys go into our schools to sensitize our children. This is not some trendy babble, but a threat against which we must protect our children.” He believes Hungary must establish the strictest child protection system in Europe. Regarding a recent domestic scandal in a Budapest school, he said:

he is also very upset about the sexual scandal involving the teacher's assistant in Obuda; he also questions where the principal and school district members were in defending and protecting the children?  He will be meeting with Minister of the Interior Sándor Pintér to get some answers on this.

Photo: MTI