Writing about the conflict in Ukraine, the prime minister argued that the war has increasingly shaped European political decision-making over the past four years. As he described it, Europe’s involvement has steadily escalated during this period. “Humanitarian aid turned into helmets, the helmets into firearms, and eventually into tanks and missiles,” PM Orbán wrote, outlining what he sees as the gradual progression of European policy.
Prime Minister Orbán said the European strategy built on isolating Russia and weakening its economy through sanctions has clearly failed to achieve its goal. According to him, the policy has not brought the fighting to an end and has not forced Russia to halt its military operations. At the same time, Ukraine’s military victory still appears distant, while the human and economic cost of the war continues to grow.
The prime minister also warned that the wider geopolitical environment is making the situation even more difficult. Alongside the war in Ukraine, conflicts in the Middle East could further worsen Europe’s economic outlook. Prime Minister Orbán pointed out that after Germany shut down its last nuclear power plants and sanctions were imposed on Russian energy supplies, a new energy crisis linked to tensions with Iran could deliver another serious blow to European industry and threaten millions of jobs.
Migration was another issue highlighted in the commentary. According to PM Orbán, uncontrolled mass migration, mainly from Muslim-majority countries, has brought a new wave of antisemitism to Europe and imported conflicts from the Middle East onto the continent. Hungary, he said, has chosen a different path, stressing that the government will never allow Jewish life to be threatened in the country.
Prime Minister Orbán also addressed tensions between Hungary and Ukraine regarding energy supplies. He pointed to the suspension of oil deliveries through the Druzhba pipeline, which supplies Hungary and Slovakia under earlier European agreements. According to PM Orbán, the pipeline has stopped operating multiple times since the beginning of the war, but was restarted on most occasions by the Ukrainian side. This time, however, he said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky decided to keep the pipeline closed just weeks before Hungary’s parliamentary elections.
The prime minister argued that Brussels is attempting to weaken the tools available to Hungary to pressure Kyiv to reopen the pipeline. In this context he defended Hungary’s veto against a proposed €90 billion loan package, calling it a decision guided by common sense. According to Prime Minister Orbán, the democratically elected Hungarian government has neither the reason nor the right to support a country that, by closing the pipeline, poses an existential threat to Hungarian energy security.
Prime Minister Orbán also criticized what he described as cooperation between Brussels and Kyiv against Hungary. In his view, the two actors share an interest in replacing Hungary’s current government with one that would follow their political expectations. “My task is to prevent this, and together with the Hungarian voters we will do so,” PM Orbán wrote.
According to the prime minister, the current direction of the EU’s Ukraine policy is shaped primarily by a small group of political leaders. He argued that decisions are effectively determined by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, European People’s Party leader Manfred Weber, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Because of this alignment, Prime Minister Orbán said it has become nearly impossible to revise the EU’s current strategy or to halt the financing of the war.
In his view, this political environment has allowed President Zelensky to make ever stronger demands of European leaders while relying on the support of an 800,000-strong Ukrainian army that has been largely built with European funding.
Prime Minister Orbán also stressed that Europe currently lacks a realistic solution to its energy crisis. While the United States has begun negotiating with Russia and has allowed India to resume imports of Russian oil, he said Brussels continues to reject any discussion about suspending sanctions on Russian energy. Without access to affordable Russian oil and gas, PM Orbán argued, Europe will struggle to overcome its current economic challenges.
Concluding his commentary, Prime Minister Orbán said that European citizens have endured the consequences of these policies for four years. They have faced rising energy costs, higher fuel prices, and the gradual weakening of Europe’s once powerful industrial base.
For this reason, PM Orbán posed a question to European leaders: “Why do they think, in Brussels, that the patience of European citizens is unlimited?”
Looking ahead, the prime minister argued that the European Union must eventually reclaim its sovereignty and rethink its current course. As he put it, the central problem is that “Europe has been taken hostage.”