Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has told the Swiss daily Weltwoche that Hungary is “being dragged into war”, but its leadership is strong enough to keep the country out of the conflict.
The prime minister said in the interview that Hungary was hit hard by the sanctions imposed on Russia by the European Union. He said the sanctions have driven up the price of oil and gas, and the cost of supplying the growing energy needs of Hungary’s industry has risen from 7 billion euros in 2021 to 17 billion in 2022. “We are under constant pressure. They want to drag us into the war by every possible means. So far, we have managed to resist … Hungary’s political leadership is strong enough to keep our homeland out of the war,” he said. “The decisions made in Brussels [regarding Ukraine] mirror American interests more often than European ones,” Orbán said. This war “cannot be won”, he added. “Ukraine is facing a nuclear power with 140 million inhabitants. Russia is facing the entire NATO … this is a stalemate, which could easily devolve into a world war.” Orbán cited President Vladimir Putin as saying at their last meeting before the war started that “he had no problem with Hungary’s NATO membership, only with that of Ukraine and Georgia…”