Prime Minister Viktor Orbán pointed out in a conversation with Bloomberg’s John Micklethwait that Hungary views the conflict in Ukraine differently from the mainstream European perspective because it is a neighbor of the country at war, which has a significant Hungarian minority, many of whom have died in the various battles.
The prime minister called the war a failure of diplomacy that should never have happened. “For us, it's obvious that the battlefield solution does not work. The question is not who invaded whom, the question is what will be the situation the next morning? And the next morning, the fact is that more and more people will die, and there is no chance to have a victory on either side,” PM Orbán said.
According to him, the most important thing for the international political community is to save lives, as there is no chance to win this war. PM Orbán, therefore, believes that a ceasefire is needed first, and then we can start negotiating a new European security system.
“My point is that the only peace talks and peace agreement that could close this whole conflict will have to be between Russia and the United States. So what is at stake? Of course, Ukraine is very important, but in longer-term strategic thinking, what is at stake is the future security of Europe. And it's obvious that without the United States, there is no security architecture for Europe, and now the war can only be stopped if the Russians can make an agreement with the United States. As a European, I'm not happy with that, but this is the only way out,” Prime Minister Orbán said.
In response to a question, he said that in the United States, the Democrats are led more by ideology than the Republicans. Democrats regularly try to convince people of their principles and sometimes even impose their will on others, he said.
"I don't like that. We have our own culture, our own way of life, please don't interfere. Don't educate us, don't tell us what is right and what is wrong!" Viktor Orbán said. It is not the job of the Americans, nor of any other nationality, to tell Hungarians how to live, he continued, adding that “former Republican President Donald Trump understood this well.”
On putting Hungary’s oil company MOL on the list of international “sponsors of war,” PM Orbán stated that “it is a matter of principle that if a country like Ukraine expects financial support from us, it should show respect and not blacklist our companies.”