Even at the outbreak of the war, Hungary's position was that there would be only losers in the war, no winners, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said in a radio interview this morning on Kossuth Radio.
In his view, Russia is "hitting a wall" because NATO is financing Ukraine and the US budget is very hard to beat. The Russians, on the other hand, are much more numerous and have more soldiers and weapons than Ukraine. Besides, Russia has the largest nuclear arsenal in the world, PM Orbán warned. According to him, nuclear powers cannot be defeated in a war, and Russians will not stand idly by while they are attacked or their president is assassinated.
The prime minister also said that the destruction in Ukraine is enormous and that there are many victims of the war. He stressed that the government is following the events and is keeping count of the Hungarian victims in Transcarpathia, including those who were drafted.
"We should be glad that there is peace here and that we are strong enough to prevent the Americans from forcing us into war," PM Orbán said. According to the prime minister, the United States is waging a war campaign in our country. He said that we need a ceasefire and peace as soon as possible, but this is far away now, and that we have difficult weeks ahead of us, and that the Ukrainians are preparing a counterattack that will aggravate the conflict.
PM Orbán then reminded listeners that there are always different economic interests involved in a war.
"Some people make huge profits just because there is a war. The arms business flourishes at such times. War is a gold mine for speculators and smugglers. Besides, we should not forget that George Soros has always dreamed of somehow getting a foothold in Ukraine and gaining access to Russia's natural resources," PM Orbán explained.
Commenting on the visit of Pope Francis, the prime minister said that he could not remember such a good mood for three days in the last thirty years. "The Pope came here and good things happened, everyone said so, regardless of denomination. All the Hungarian, opposition, left-wing, and right-wing debates, attacks, and malice were put in parentheses, lost their relevance, and something else arose," he said.
"You don't have to be a believer to feel that the country has changed," the PM said, adding that he saw the Vatican as determined to mobilize its forces, contacts, and influence for peace and that Pope Francis was planning a peace mission and would gather leaders who wanted peace and were willing to express that view publicly.
"I think this is the last chance for the Ukrainians to achieve any kind of military success. If this bullet is fired, if this happens, then we will see the real balance of power, and there will be more opportunities for diplomatic action for peace," PM Orbán said.
"There are Hungarians living in Ukraine, part of Ukraine is old Hungarian land, which now belongs to Ukraine," he said. Hungarians in Transcarpathia were dragged into this war, so we are at least doubly motivated to see peace, as PM Orbán noted.
In a response to a question on the ban on Ukrainian grain imports, PM Orbán said that Hungary wanted to help the Ukrainians by allowing Ukrainian grain to be sent duty-free to starving countries.
"This is not what happened, speculators bought up the grain and drove prices down, destroying the Central European grain markets. Led by the Poles, Central Europe defied Brussels, and we banned grain imports on our own authority, after which Brussels had no choice but to agree with us," he pointed out.
The prime minister said that we must stand up for ourselves and that he does not believe that Brussels will send money to Hungarian farmers, despite promises to the contrary.
We have to be careful with Ukraine's membership in the EU because it will not help us if we ruin ourselves in the process, he said. Before the war, Hungary paid 7 billion euros for energy; last year, we paid 17 billion euros. The left demanded that we raise the prices, so Hungarian families would have paid 181,000 forints more per month, he said.
PM Orbán pointed out that the cost of utilities for small and medium-sized enterprises has also fallen significantly. In addition, Hungarians can save a lot with the help of newly introduced county travel passes, he added. The travel pass means that people in rural areas receive the same subsidy as people in Budapest.
"While we have to run a war budget, we are still trying to maintain family protection measures," he added. There is a sliding effect on energy from Russia because it is linked to stock market prices, and the change in prices is felt only two months later, he said.
There are fears that energy prices will rise as the heating season approaches, and it is far from certain that there will be enough gas in Europe.
The prime minister said that an initiative to prevent EU member states from having an independent foreign policy in the future would be published today or tomorrow. Until now, there has been total unanimity in foreign policy decisions, and this would change.
"Throughout the Western world, they are trying to limit the autonomy of nations and take over as many of their affairs as possible," he said. We believe in a Europe of nations, which is the basis of the West's competitive advantage, PM Orbán added.