There is no chance for complete military victory for either side in this war; therefore, the West should focus on ceasefire negotiations instead of arms shipments to prevent further bloodshed, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said in an interview with Bloomberg’s editor-in-chief John Micklethwait at the Qatar Economic Forum in Doha on Tuesday, May 23rd.
“Looking at the reality, looking at the surroundings, looking at the fact that NATO is not ready to send troops, it’s obvious that there is no victory for the poor Ukrainians on the battlefield,” the Hungarian prime minister said.
The remarks sent shockwaves through international media, though nothing remotely surprising was said. The idea of NATO’s boots on the ground is not something that any Western country would argue for, lest they risk prompting World War III. But without direct NATO involvement, Russia is able to stretch this conflict out for years—quite possibly beyond Ukraine’s eventual exhaustion in terms of manpower—as experts have suggested.
Therefore, Orbán merely pointed out the apparent contradiction in the West’s mainstream Ukraine policy, in which constant military support is enough in terms of sending Ukrainian soldiers to their deaths, perhaps indefinitely, but is not enough to end the war.
For instance, this is the case of the recently created “fighter jet coalition” made up of several countries promising to help Kyiv procure a fleet of F-16s, but not one of them actually offering a single aircraft. NATO, Orbán appears to suggest, is simply nearing the end of the support capabilities it has without prompting catastrophic escalation, which renders further human sacrifices pointless.
“The fact is that more and more people will die, and there is no chance to have a victory on either side,” the prime minister said. “This is a war which just deprives many persons of their lives, without having any results.”
That is why Hungary has been advocating for a different approach than most European nations, Orbán argued, adding that, due to the Hungarian community living in western Ukraine, conscripted Hungarian soldiers also lose their lives daily. Hungary, therefore, is mostly interested in ending the bloodshed, believing that it’s the best way to help Ukraine.
Orbán told Micklethwait,
Emotionally, [the war’s] tragic. All of our hearts are with the Ukrainians. We understand how much they suffer. But I’m speaking here as a politician who should save lives. The most important thing for the international political community is to save lives … Therefore, what we should invest far more energy into is convincing everybody that the only solution is a ceasefire. Then … peace talks should start.
Naturally, Kyiv was quick to respond to Orbán’s comments, saying that it will not stop before achieving full military victory. “Unlike supporters of capitulation to the enemy without resistance, Ukrainians will continue to fight until full liberation of their territories from Russian occupation,” Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleg Nikolenko wrote in a Facebook post on Tuesday, adding that Ukraine’s victory “is the only way not only to restore peace … but also to guarantee the security of all of Ukraine.”
