The Western NATO alliance is moving ever closer to direct conflict with Russia over Ukraine, according to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
“Instead of defending us, NATO is dragging us [Hungary], a member state, into a world war,” Mr. Orban said in broadcast remarks on May 31.
Hungary has been a member of NATO since 1999.
However, unlike other alliance members, Hungary under Mr. Orban has maintained good relations with Russia despite the latter’s ongoing invasion of eastern Ukraine.
To the annoyance of Hungary’s NATO allies, Mr. Orban, who has served as prime minister since 2010, has been a vocal critic of the West’s full-throated support for Kyiv.
Early last month, Budapest declined to participate in a long-term NATO plan to establish a 100-billion-euro fund (about $108 billion) for military assistance to Ukraine.
“Hungary will stay out of NATO’s crazy mission despite all the pressure,” Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said on May 8.
A government spokesman said at the time that Budapest wouldn’t support any initiative that might “draw the alliance closer to war or shift it from a defensive to an offensive coalition.”
Mr. Orban says he wants to see an end to the fighting in Ukraine and avoid an escalation of the conflict, which is now in its third year. His critics accuse him of capitulating to Moscow at the expense of Ukraine and its Western supporters.
Hungary has also irked fellow European Union (EU) members by blocking measures to provide Kyiv with another 6.5 billion euros (about $7.05 billion) in military assistance.
“War is a monster that is constantly hungry,” Mr. Orban said in an interview with Kossuth, a Hungarian state broadcaster. “It must be fed, and it must be fed with money.
“And the Democratic government of the United States, and the leaders of the European Union, are ready to feed it.”
Last week, Gabrielius Landsbergis, Lithuania’s foreign minister, accused Budapest of thwarting “any effort by the EU to play a meaningful role in foreign affairs.”
“Almost all our decisions ... are being blocked by just one country,” Mr. Landsbergis said on May 27 before a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels.
EU foreign policy decisions require the backing of all 27 of the bloc’s members.
Mr. Szijjarto said that Hungary wouldn’t change its stance on the issue “regardless of what the war-favoring politicians are shouting.”
‘Closer to War, Destruction’
In his recent broadcast remarks, Mr. Orban claimed that NATO was “moving closer to war” with Russia “with each passing week.”To support his assertion, he pointed to ongoing talks between Paris and Kyiv on the possible deployment of French military instructors to Ukraine.
On May 27, Ukraine’s defense ministry stated that Kyiv was “still in discussions with France and other countries on this issue.”
That was later confirmed by the French Defense Ministry, which stated that “training on Ukrainian soil remains the subject of discussion with the Ukrainians.”
In previous statements, Moscow has warned that if French instructors were deployed on Ukrainian territory, they would be viewed as “legitimate targets.”
Mr. Orban also noted NATO’s recent decision to allow Ukraine to use long-range munitions supplied by the West to strike targets inside Russian territory.
Since Moscow launched its invasion of Ukraine in early 2022, Kyiv’s allies have refrained from taking such a step, fearing a dramatic escalation of the conflict.
However, last week, NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said the “time had come” for alliance members to rethink their restrictions on Kyiv’s use of long-range weapons. At a May 28 meeting of EU defense ministers, Mr. Stoltenberg stressed Kyiv’s “right” to use Western weapons to strike “legitimate military targets in Russia.”
The issue was “particularly relevant now” in light of an ongoing Russian offensive that has made notable gains in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, he said.
When asked about NATO’s apparent policy shift, Russian President Vladimir Putin said: “Constant escalation can lead to serious consequences.
“If these consequences occur in Europe, how will the United States behave, bearing in mind our parity in the field of strategic weapons?”
Mr. Putin said Kyiv’s European allies “should be aware of what they are playing with.”
According to Mr. Orban, both developments are “worrying” signs that NATO is bracing for direct conflict with Russia and that Europe is “inching closer to destruction.”
“Instead of protecting its members,” he said, “NATO is pulling us into a world war.”
Mr. Orban went on to compare the 32-member Western alliance to someone “using a flamethrower to put out a fire.”
