BUDAPEST (Reuters) – NATO’s plans to get extra concerned within the conflict in Ukraine are like a firefighter making an attempt to place out a hearth with a flamethrower, Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban mentioned on Friday.
Orban, who has cultivated relations with Moscow, has been at odds with western nations over help for Ukraine since Russia’s full-scale invasion greater than two years in the past.
NATO was “getting closer to war” each week, Orban mentioned as alliance international ministers have been assembly in Prague to debate navy support to Ukraine.
NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg mentioned on Thursday that the “time has come” for members of the navy alliance to rethink a few of the restrictions connected to using weapons they equipped to Ukraine.
Whereas Ukrainian leaders urged governments to ease the restrictions, western international locations appeared more and more divided in latest weeks on whether or not or not Ukraine ought to be allowed to strike targets on Russian soil.
Hungary’s international minister mentioned earlier this month that his nation, a NATO member, wouldn’t take part within the alliance’s long-term plan to assist Ukraine, which Budapest has referred to as a “crazy mission”.
European Union international ministers urged Hungary on Monday to cease blocking measures to supply billions of euros in navy support to Ukraine, as simmering pressure with Budapest boiled over in a gathering.
Orban additionally mentioned on Friday that negotiations about sending French navy trainers to Ukraine and to permit the Ukraine navy to make use of Western weapons to assault Russian targets have been concepts that have been “worrying” and took NATO nearer to conflict.
A NATO mission to Ukraine would danger world conflict as a substitute of defending the member states of the alliance, Orban mentioned.
“It is absurd that NATO, instead of defending us, is dragging us, a member state, into a world war. This is as absurd as a firefighter deciding to come and put out a fire with a flamethrower,” he mentioned on Hungarian state radio.
Relations between Budapest and NATO have soured due to Hungary’s foot-dragging over the ratification of Sweden’s NATO accession – lastly handed by Budapest in March – and in addition over nationalist Orban’s heat ties with Moscow regardless of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
