Hungarian PM urges new EU strategy on Ukraine, says sanctions have failed
The European Union needs a new strategy on the war in Ukraine as sanctions against Moscow have not worked, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Saturday.
"A new strategy is needed which should focus peace talks and drafting a good peace proposal ... instead of winning the war," Orban said in a speech in Romania.
Nationalist Orban, reelected for a fourth consecutive term in April, reiterated that Hungary would stay out of the war in neighbouring Ukraine.
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Orban has said before that Hungary is also unwilling to support EU embargoes or limitations on Russian gas imports as that would undermine its economy.
He said in his speech that the Western strategy has been built on four pillars: the first that Ukraine can win a war against Russia with NATO weapons, that sanctions would weaken Russia and destabilise its leadership, that sanctions would hurt Russia more than Europe and that the world would line up in support of Europe.
Orban said this strategy has failed, as governments in Europe are collapsing "like dominoes", energy prices have surged and a new strategy was needed now.
"We are sitting in a car that has a puncture in all four tyres: it is absolutely clear that the war cannot be won in this way," Orban told his supporters.
He said Ukraine will never win the war this way "quite simply because the Russian army has assymetrical dominance".
