Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has called for negotiations between the US and Russia on a ceasefire in Ukraine – and he is counting on US President Donald Trump, who was voted out of office two years ago. “The ceasefire does not have to come about between Russia and Ukraine, but between America and Russia,” said Orban on Tuesday in a public interview with “Cicero” magazine in Berlin, according to the official translation. “Anyone who thinks that this war will be concluded through Russian-Ukrainian negotiations does not live in this world. The reality of power is different.”
Orban explained that Ukraine could only fight back against the Russian invaders because it received military support from the United States. The war is only open today because the Americans wanted it that way. “That’s why the Americans have to come to an agreement with the Russians. And then the war will be over.”
Orban also made it clear that he doesn’t think US President Joe Biden is the right negotiator on the American side. “The American President has gone too far,” he said. Biden has said things about Russian President Vladimir Putin that it is difficult for the two to negotiate peace. “What I’m saying will sound brutal now. But hope for peace is called Donald Trump,” Orban said, according to the translation. After the war began, Biden described Putin as a “butcher”, “war criminal” and “murderous dictator”.
Orban visits Berlin for several days. The event organized by the magazine “Cicero” was entitled “Storm over Europe – the Ukraine war, the energy crisis and geopolitical challenges”.
Orban also assumes that Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) could have prevented the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine. Merkel had already prevented a war in 2014 through her actions after the Russian annexation of Crimea. “What Angela Merkel did during the Crimean crisis was a masterpiece.” There was no war at the time because Germany’s diplomatic efforts isolated the conflict. “They didn’t let this go up and we all got involved.”
When asked whether he should be understood in such a way that, in his opinion, there would not have been a war against Ukraine with Chancellor Merkel, Orban replied, according to the translation: “Certainly.”
