Adopted Putin’s choice of words
Orban: Russia’s attack on Ukraine is not a war
December 21, 2023, 5:05 p.m
In October, Viktor Orban met with Vladimir Putin in Beijing, then Hungary’s head of government blocked further aid to Ukraine in Brussels. Now he denies the Russian attack on the neighboring country to be of war nature. This is an “operation,” explains Orban.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has questioned the war nature of Russia’s attack on Ukraine and supported Russian President Vladimir Putin with his choice of words. “This is an operation as long as there is no declaration of war between the two countries,” said the right-wing populist politician at his annual press conference in Budapest.
He was responding to the question of why he recently avoided the term “war” in his conversation with Putin. Some people would describe the events as a “war”. “We Hungarians don’t tell anyone what words to use when talking about it,” emphasized Orban. “We’re glad it’s not a war.” However, he said about Ukraine that it was at war. Orban, who has long had good relations with Putin, met the Kremlin chief in Beijing in October.
Orban made an ambiguous statement about the dispute with Brussels over the 21 billion euros in EU funding that continues to be frozen for Hungary due to concerns about the rule of law. On the one hand, he rejected the accusation that he wanted to link this issue with the EU’s plans for further aid to Ukraine amounting to 50 billion euros. On the other hand, he emphasized that he was strictly against including this amount in the EU’s seven-year budget.
There is a risk that there will be nothing left to pay out the currently blocked sums for Hungary, Orban claimed, although this is not true. In principle, however, he is in favor of Ukraine receiving financial support, because Budapest is also interested in Ukraine’s existence as a buffer state between Hungary and Russia.