Péter Szijjártó, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, said that although last year the president of the European Commission condemned Hungary’s peace mission, she has now expressed support for the proposal for a ceasefire in Ukraine, adding that this raised the question of how many deaths could have been prevented had the EU backed this position earlier.
Hungary’s government was already calling for an immediate ceasefire and peace talks at the start of the war, Minister Szijjártó said at a podium discussion at a town hall in Budapest’s 4th district, according to a ministry statement.
Minister Szijjártó said that after Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s peace mission last year, the European Commission president had "ruled out a ceasefire and peace talks", arguing that this would have served Russia’s interests. But after this week’s talks between the United States and Ukraine, she has welcomed a proposal for a ceasefire, the minister added.
He said this turn of events "clearly demonstrates Ursula von der Leyen’s complete lack of seriousness", adding, at the same time, that the issue at hand was serious.
"If they had represented this same position three years ago, hundreds of thousands of lives would have been spared and millions less would have had to flee, and there would be tens of billions of euros less damage," he said.
"We were calling for a ceasefire and peace talks three years ago," Minister Szijjártó said. "The ones who rejected this three years ago and are now acting as if nothing happened have to ask themselves … how much less loss humanity, Europe, central Europe, including Ukraine, would have suffered if they hadn’t been busy insulting Hungarians three years ago, but had said what we were saying…"
Minister Szijjártó said this raised a serious question of responsibility. "I think the majority of European politicians see, know, or at least feel that the political strategy of the last three years has been a total failure, and I think they’re now buying time," he said. "Those who buy time save lives, and they’re trying to delay the moment when they’ll have to admit how much damage three years of a failed policy has caused for the European people."
"Because the admission of failure also opens up the question of responsibility," Minister Szijjártó said. He cited the example of the sanctions imposed on Russia which had originally been aimed at "bringing Moscow to its knees and ending the war".
"That was three years ago. And the Russian economy has not been brought to its knees, and it’s clear that after three years it’s not thanks to the European sanctions that we’re at a point where there’s a possibility for a ceasefire and peace talks somewhere in the near future," he said.