Orbán on Zelenskyy’s victory plan: More than frightening

Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has called a Ukrainian plan to request weapons and security guarantees from the West “more than frightening.” 

The populist leader was reacting in a Facebook post to a “victory plan” outlined by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Wednesday ahead of a European Council meeting that was to negotiate future European Union aid to Ukraine. 

“Today President Zelenskyy will present his plan for victory. What he outlined yesterday in the Ukrainian parliament was more than frightening,” Orbán wrote, adding that instead of sending more weapons to Ukraine, a cease-fire and peace negotiations were needed. 

“I am one of those who urge the European Union to change its current strategy. The European Union went into this war with a badly organized, badly executed, badly calculated strategy, for which the president of the Commission bears the main responsibility,” Orbán wrote, referring to Ursula von der Leyen.

“We are losing this war, so the strategy is not working. But this does not mean that we need more war, more dangerous and long-range weapons — it means that we need to change from a war strategy to a peace strategy. We need a cease-fire and peace talks!”

Orbán added that he would urge German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron to start negotiations with Moscow “on behalf of the entire EU” as soon as possible “to find a way out of this situation.”

The Hungarian leader’s stance puts him at odds with EU leaders, including chief diplomat Josep Borrell, who wants to see a decision at the Council meeting on “de-blocking payments from the European Peace Facility and providing more military support to Ukraine.” Hungary has been blocking the transfer of €6.6 billion to Kyiv for well over a year, drawing the ire of other member countries.