Orbán’s administration tries to justify him for meeting with Putin and calling war in Ukraine “military operation”
Pravda Ukraine
On Wednesday 18 October, Gergely Gulyás, administration chief of the Hungarian Prime Minister, tried to respond to criticism of Orbán’s meeting with the Russian President Vladimir Putin in China.
Source: Hungarian TV channel ATV with reference to Gulyás, reports European Pravda
Details: Orbán’s chief of staff commented on criticism voiced by the US Ambassador to Hungary David Pressman, who said that the Hungarian prime minister “chooses to stand with a man whose forces are responsible for crimes against humanity in Ukraine.”
Quote: “If you recall previous years, you will see there meetings, a lot of meetings between Joe Biden and President Putin,” Gulyás commented on this and advised to look at the photos from these meetings.
To the remark of the ATV journalist that the presidents of the United States and Russia saw each other only before the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Hungarian official recalled the importance of “talking about peace and the need to put an end to Russian aggression.”
“This is exactly what the prime minister did, and I would advise others to do the same,” he added.
At the same time, Gulyás did not give a direct answer to the question of why during his meeting with Putin Orbán called the aggression against Ukraine with the Russian propaganda term of “military operation”, but only recalled that Budapest’s official position was condemnation of the war and respect for the territorial integrity of Ukraine.
Earlier it was reported that Russian President Vladimir Putin held talks with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán in Beijing.
This is the first time in more than a year that Putin has met with the leader of an EU country. In April 2022, Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer visited Moscow and met with the Kremlin leader.
Orbán regularly makes anti-Ukrainian statements in the spirit of Russian propaganda. In particular, he has said that the historic opportunity for Ukraine to join NATO has been lost and that Kyiv should forget about joining the Alliance.
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