Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said that Budapest has been “stigmatized” for insisting on ending the conflict in Ukraine.
“Hungary will continue to insist on an immediate and peaceful resolution to the Ukrainian conflict despite Western pressure to change its stance,” Szijjártó said in an interview with the Russian business newspaper RBK.
He admitted that not all of Hungary’s partners appreciate Budapest’s efforts to end the hostilities between Moscow and Kyiv.
Hungary has consistently refused to send weapons to Ukraine, calling for an immediate ceasefire and criticizing Western sanctions against Russia as ineffective and destructive.
“Whenever I say that peace is necessary, I am stigmatized, called pro-Russian, pro-Putin, and even a Russian spy and Kremlin propagandist,” Szijjártó said.
The Hungarian foreign minister noted that the “intellectual level of debate [on resolving the Ukrainian conflict] is not high,” adding that Hungary sees “only stigmatization” but no counterarguments in response to its position.
“This does not help in solving the problem. We will continue to defend our position. We will have to face very strong pressures, sometimes even blackmail. We are confronted with demands to change our stance, but we are not prepared to do so because it is the will of the Hungarian people,” said Hungary’s top diplomat.
Szijjártó lamented that the EU has mostly fallen into a war-mongering state and noted that Hungary and Slovakia have ended up “in an absolute minority” regarding their positions on Ukraine.
“The issue is not what we think about the war, but how we think peace can be achieved in the shortest and quickest way. We believe that the more weapons are supplied, the longer the conflict will last. We do not see any solution on the battlefield, only at the negotiating table,” he concluded.
Last week, Szijjártó traveled to Russia to meet with Alexey Miller, head of the energy giant Gazprom, to discuss the export of natural gas to Hungary, which is heavily dependent on supplies from Russia.
Szijjártó expressed regret that many in the West perceive energy cooperation with Russia as a political controversy and emphasized that agreements with Moscow guarantee Hungary a sustainable gas supply.