Hungary’s Orban accuses EU of prolonging war in Ukraine

By JUSTIN SPIKE
Associated Press

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Hungary’s prime minister says the European Union is partly to blame for prolonging Russia’s war in Ukraine. Speaking at an annual state-of-the-nation address in Budapest on Saturday, Viktor Orban doubled down on his government’s insistence that supporting Kyiv was a mistaken strategy for European countries. He said the EU fanned the flames of the war by sanctioning Russia and supplying Ukraine with money and weapons. Orban says Europe should have sought to negotiate a peace with Moscow instead. Hungary has broken with most of its Western allies by refusing to provide military aid to Ukraine or allow its transfer across its borders. Orban says Hungary will not forgo its economic relationship with Russia over the war.