Anti-Brexit Euro MP Brands Orban ‘Traitor’ for Urging Humanitarian Aid, Not Weapons, for Ukraine

National March to Rejoin the EU in London
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Chris Tomlinson and Jack Montgomery

Anti-Brexit Member of the European Parliament and former Belgian prime minister Guy Verhofstadt has labelled Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán a “traitor” for suggesting the Ukraine war would end if weapons shipments were stopped.

Verhofstadt, well-known in the United Kingdom for his vehement anti-Brexit views — once openly branding Brexit voters “stupid” for voting to leave the European Union — slammed Prime Minister Orbán this week following a recent interview he gave on Ukraine.

“No other word for this… Orbán is a traitor!” Verhofstadt said on Twitter in reaction to comments made by Prime Minister Orbán in a recent interview on the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.

Orbán told Hungarian media that the war in Ukraine might last “a long time,” warning: “This danger is possible. At the same time though, Ukraine can only continue fighting as long as the United States is supporting them with money and weapons. If the Americans want peace, then there will be peace.”

“We support and help Ukraine, we have an interest in the survival of a sovereign Ukraine, and we have an interest in Russia not posing a security threat to Europe. However, we have no interest in surrendering all our economic relations with Russia,” Orbán added.

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry also criticised Prime Minister Orbán over his remarks, releasing a statement claiming Orbán was politically short-sighted, saying: “After all, the defeat of Ukraine in the war, which Viktor Orbán indirectly calls for, would lead to a direct threat of Russian aggression to Hungary and the Hungarian people.”

An adjunct professor of European military history in Finland recently suggested that without the supply U.S. weapons, Ukraine may not exist as a country.

“It has been critical to Ukraine’s survival. Without U.S. arms shipments, Ukraine would no longer exist. Modern Western weapons technology has forced Russia to retreat on several fronts,” academic Markku Salomaa said.

Orbán, for his part, argued at his end-of-year international press conference, a transcript of which has been seen by Breitbart London, that Hungary “should definitely stay out of the war, partly because there are many Hungarians living in that neighbouring country, and partly because war is always bad; people are dying every day, and hundreds of Hungarians have already died in this war, having been conscripted into the Ukrainian army.”

“The Hungarian viewpoint is that if you want to avoid participating in a war, do not let yourself be dragged into one,” the Hungarian leader explained.

“I think that most of Europe is already in this war, having been dragged into it. Anyone who supplies arms is in this war – at least up to their ankles. Anyone who trains the soldiers of one of the warring sides is knee-deep in it, and anyone who not only trains individual soldiers but also provides operational or leadership training is in the war up to their waist. And anyone who fully finances not only the military expenditure but also the costs of operating the state of one of the belligerent sides – as the European Union is now doing to the tune of 18 billion euros – is in the war up to their necks,” he claimed.

“Hungary has – despite great international pressure – managed to stay out of all this and maintain the position that what is needed is an immediate ceasefire, immediate peace talks, and peace itself. Alongside all this we have fulfilled our human and Christian duty to help those in need, and – although this is not our war – as soon as it broke out we launched Hungary’s largest ever humanitarian operation in order to help the Ukrainians,” he insisted.

Follow Chris Tomlinson on Twitter at @TomlinsonCJ or email at ctomlinson(at)breitbart.com.

 

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