BUDAPEST, Hungary — Hungary’s foreign minister criticized U.S. President Joe Biden’s recent decision to permit Ukraine to utilize American-supplied missiles to target areas deeper within Russia, claiming this action could potentially escalate the ongoing war and heighten the risk of a global conflict.
This authorization enables Kyiv to deploy the Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMs) for strikes further into Russian territory while President Vladimir Putin has begun to position North Korean military personnel along Ukraine’s northern border in an attempt to reclaim territories lost to Ukrainian forces. The Kremlin condemned Biden’s decision, cautioning that it would only add “fuel to the fire,” exacerbating existing international tensions.
On Monday, Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó, known for his critical stance against Ukraine and his close connections with Putin’s administration, asserted that Biden’s decision contradicted the wishes of voters who had recently elected Donald Trump as president. He further criticized European Union leaders who are continuously striving to provide support to Ukraine.
“It appears that the pro-war political elites on both sides of the ocean are making one more frantic and aggressive push against the new realities and the desires of the populace,” Szijjártó remarked.
Under Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, Hungary has adopted a particularly hostile attitude towards Ukraine’s aspirations to join the 27-member European bloc and the NATO military alliance. As a close ally of the Kremlin, Orbán has consistently opposed aid to Ukraine and has threatened to veto sanctions against Russia in response to the conflict.
Szijjártó labeled Biden’s approval of Ukraine’s use of U.S. weaponry as “extremely dangerous,” cautioning it could risk an expansion of the war, which reaches its 1,000-day mark on Tuesday. He expressed concerns about the Ukrainian demands and some NATO countries’ lenient stance towards inviting Ukraine to join NATO, claiming that such membership would nearly bring the threat of World War III into reality.
President-elect Trump, set to assume office in about two months, has raised questions regarding whether his administration will maintain critical military assistance to Ukraine. He has also promised to work towards swiftly ending the conflict but has yet to provide specifics on how he intends to achieve that goal.
Hungary’s government has persistently called for a cease-fire in the conflict, though it refrains from discussing what that would mean for Ukraine’s territorial integrity or the larger security concerns for Europe.