More EU leaders joining ‘peace camp’ – Orban
A growing number of EU countries are edging towards abandoning their “pro-war” attitudes and are seeking a peaceful resolution to the Ukraine conflict, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has said.
Speaking to the national Kossuth Radio station on Friday, Orban claimed that while the bloc had been slow to catch up with the “normal-minded part of the world,” there are now indications that EU states are realizing that the Ukraine conflict is not “their war” and are starting to seek ways to end it.
His comments come after German Chancellor Olaf Scholz called for a renewed peace effort earlier this week, stating that Russia must be involved in the next peace talks on the conflict.
Scholz has also reportedly been busy drafting his own Ukraine peace plan along the lines of the failed 2014 Minsk agreements – a series of measures designed to rein in hostilities in Donbass and reconcile the warring parties.
“It is becoming clear from more and more [EU] countries that they would like to join the peace camp. Here, for example, is the German chancellor, who has just said things for which he would have been flayed in the German media three weeks ago. So the situation is changing,” Orban stated.
He argued that the ‘peace mission’ he embarked upon in the summer, which aimed to draw key players in the conflict to the negotiation table, had caused fellow EU members to rethink their positions.
“We started this idea, because we stirred up a huge debate in Europe… Without the peace mission, such a debate would not have started and everyone would still only talk war,” Orban stressed. He accused the entire bloc of being pro-war for too long, and reiterated his call for negotiations.
This war clearly has no solution on the battlefield. It is necessary to get away from it. This is possible if you seriously start a conversation about calling a truce and launching peace negotiations... An agreement must be sought.
Orban noted that he has several more “unexpected initiatives” within the framework of his ‘peace mission’ to accelerate the process. Unlike many EU nations, Hungary has long called for a diplomatic resolution of the conflict, rather than supplying Kiev with weapons.
The last negotiations between Russia and Ukraine broke down in the spring of 2022, despite the sides pre-approving a draft peace treaty. According to Russian President Vladimir Putin, the West “ordered” Kiev to drop the treaty due to its wish “to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia.”
Moscow has often expressed its eagerness to end the conflict diplomatically, but warned that it will not agree to peace on Ukraine’s terms, which include Russia ceding territory claimed by Kiev.
