Russia won’t allow NATO and EU on its borders – Orban

The West must accept this reality, or there will be war in Europe, the Hungarian prime minister has warned

NATO and the European Union would do well to accept the fact that Russia will never allow them to come close to its borders, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has said. He also argued that Ukraine should serve as a “buffer zone” between the West and Russia to prevent a war in Europe.

Since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in February 2022, Budapest has openly opposed anti-Russian policies adopted by NATO and the EU, including sanctions against Moscow. Hungary has also consistently criticized Western weapons deliveries to Kiev.

Addressing an anti-war rally in the city of Kaposvar on Saturday, Orban stated that “we must accept that NATO and the European Union cannot be located directly at Russia’s borders, because the Russians will always respond to this with war.”

According to the Hungarian leader, “there must always be… a buffer zone between the eastern borders of Russia and the West.” He said that to avoid a military conflict, Ukraine should take on this role.

The PM also claimed that should Ukraine join the EU, then the bloc, including Hungary, would find itself in a direct confrontation with Russia.

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Orban warned that if the pro-EU Tisza opposition party wins the elections slated for April, it “will end up taking our children to war as soldiers.”

On Monday, Orban claimed that the EU is currently “controlled by a German war troika,” which includes European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and the leader of the EU Parliament’s largest bloc, EPP, Manfred Weber. According to the Hungarian prime minister, “these three people are the ones who shape Europe’s war policy today.”

He cited the €90 billion ($106 billion) EU loan package to Kiev adopted late last year, saying that the bloc was effectively financing the Ukraine conflict for another two years with borrowed money.

Orban also raised the alarm over plans to deploy ‘peacekeepers’ to Ukraine, which have recently been voiced by a number of EU leaders. “Prior experience shows that European peacekeepers always tend to become warkeepers,” Orban quipped.