Hungarian right-wing Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has criticized the European Union’s position on the planned meeting of the US and Russian leaders and declared that Russia has won the war in Ukraine, writes Reuters.
Orbán, who has been in power since 2010, has been criticized by some European leaders more than once for his close ties with Russia and his opposition to military aid to Ukraine. Meanwhile, Orbán’s government is trying to revive Hungary’s economy, which has suffered from inflation.
The Hungarian Prime Minister has continued to maintain contacts with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin even after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Orbán was the only EU leader on the 11th of August to refuse to join the joint statement, which stated that Ukraine has the right to decide its own future. On the YouTube channel Patriot, the Hungarian said that Europe is currently acting as if this war could end with an open choice, but it does not: “The Ukrainians have lost the war. Russia has won this war.”
The prime minister added that
the only remaining question is when the West, which is behind Ukraine, will accept it
and what the outcome will be.
Hungary, which receives most of its energy from Russia, has refused to send weapons to Ukraine. Orbán also strongly opposes Ukraine’s membership in the EU, saying it would destroy the work of Hungarian farmers and damage the common economy. Europe, which lost the opportunity to discuss with Putin during the previous administration of US President Joe Biden, now risks having its future decided without its presence.
Orbán said that he did not join the EU joint statement in part because it makes Europe look “ridiculous and pathetic.”
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