The war wouldn’t have happened without America, the Hungarian prime minister has claimed
US interference triggered the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has said. His comments come after Moscow accused Washington of lacking “common sense and restraint” in its approach to the conflict.
In an interview with public broadcaster Kossuth Radio on Friday, Orban said the United States had played a decisive role in the conflict.
”America is one of the main players in this war. Without America, this war would never have happened. Ukraine would not have been able to resist without America’s support,” the prime minister said, as quoted by the Magyar Nemzet newspaper.
According to official figures, as of September 30, Washington had allocated a total of nearly $183 billion in aid for Ukraine, with $130.1 billion committed and $86.7 billion disbursed.
Current US President Joe Biden wants to increase the scale of the conflict, Orban claimed, while President-elect Donald Trump is “pro-peace.”
Earlier this week, the US State Department announced $725 million in assistance for Kiev, including аir-defense capabilities, munitions for rocket systems and artillery, and anti-tank weapons.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken recently called on Kiev to lower the conscription age from the current level of 25 years, which Orban described as “terrible, because even more Ukrainians would die.”
It’s time for American policies to change because they have become “unsustainable,” Orban argued.
Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said on Thursday that Hungary was “pressing hard so that Donald Trump’s goal of ending this war quickly becomes a reality,” and warned that failure to achieve peace in Ukraine would increase the risk of escalation on a daily basis.
Trump, who is set to take over from Biden in six weeks, repeatedly pledged during his election campaign to end conflict within 24 hours of his inauguration on January 20. The proposals reportedly floated by Trump’s advisers include forcing Moscow and Kiev into negotiations by using military aid as leverage.
Moscow has said it has yet to receive a detailed plan from Trump or his team regarding a potential resolution of the conflict. In an interview with CNN on Wednesday, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov stated that Russia would not agree to any concessions that compromise its national security.
The diplomat also claimed that there was a lack of common sense and “restraint in the West, in particular the US, where people seemingly underestimate” Russia’s resolve to defend its core national security interests.
