Péter Szijjártó, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, has warned against the "serious risk of escalation" posed by Ukraine's demand for permission to use weapons supplied by the West for long-range strikes on Russia's territory.
The last "nearly 1,000 days" have proven that the war cannot be resolved on the battlefield and that weapons deliveries only lead to more casualties "and have only pushed peace farther away", Minister Szijjártó said in New York on Tuesday in reaction to recent remarks by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, according to a statement by the foreign ministry.
"And the longer the war goes on, the more casualties there will be, unfortunately, the more videos we will see about forced conscription, the greater the destruction will be, the more families will be torn apart and the more people will flee," the minister warned.
"So when President Zelensky talks about the war ending sooner than we might think, he's unfortunately not talking about a settlement through negotiations … but is continuing to urge solutions on the battlefield," he added.
Minister Szijjártó called it "a very dangerous demand" on Ukraine's part for the country's Western allies to grant it approval to use the weapons supplied by them to strike deep into Russian territory.
"We're looking at this from the perspective of whether or not such a step increases the risk of escalation, the risk of the war spreading further," Minister Szijjártó said. "And I think it's not too complicated to admit that if Ukraine were given approval to do this, it would carry an extremely serious risk of escalation."
He said this could "easily lead to" an expansion of the war, which would primarily be a threat to neighbouring countries.
"So from a Hungarian perspective as well, and from the perspective of global security I think it would be extremely dangerous if Ukraine were allowed to use Western weapons for deep strikes against Russian targets," the foreign minister said.
Minister Szijjártó welcomed the "clear signs that there remain sober voices and common sense in some Western countries", which, he said, was why Ukraine had not yet been granted approval for such strikes. "And we sincerely hope that no one will cross this red line," he added.
"This war does not have a solution on the battlefield, a solution could only be achieved through negotiations: a ceasefire and peace talks," Minister Szijjártó emphasised.
"And we will promote this approach in the United Nations this week as well, and with this, we belong to the majority; so, this is not the EU, not the transatlantic community, here those supporting peace are in a massive majority," he said. "A large majority of UN member states call for peace talks and ending the war as soon as possible, and we are part of that global majority."
The war in Ukraine will be on the agenda at the UN Security Council's evening session, Minister Szijjártó said, adding that a serious debate can be expected since it will be a forum where all sides will be represented at the highest level.
"At last, the sides who are in disagreement will sit down to the same table; the Russians, the Americans and the French will sit down at the same table, and the representatives of several African and Asian countries will also be there as Security Council members," the minister said.
"I would really be glad if they listened to each other if the case this time would be different from what it was at such multilateral events before ... when one side spoke and the opposing side was not present."
Szijjarto expressed hope that the sides would make use of the opportunity provided by the UN as "a framework", noting that the United Nations had been established as a forum for every member "to discuss every issue and allow everybody to talk to everybody".
He expressed regret that in recent years, some members had sought to turn the global organisation into "a group of like-minded countries", which he said compromised the UN's original goals.