BUDAPEST: The upcoming Christmas in Europe will be peaceful, but a threat of an armed conflict still looms on the continent, because some p...
BUDAPEST: The upcoming Christmas in Europe will be peaceful, but a threat of an armed conflict still looms on the continent, because some politicians want to embroil Europe into a direct military clash with Russia, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said.
"There will be no war this Christmas, but the threat of war is still looming," he said. "Preparations for a war [with Russia] are still under way in Europe behind closed doors."
As an indirect evidence of these preparations, the premier citied the outcome of the December 18-19 European Council meeting in Brussels, whose participants (except for Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic) have decided to issue an interest-free 90-billion-euro loan over the next two years to Ukraine finance its military action against Russia.
Orban believes that this step will cause the Ukrainian conflict to escalate, thus increasing the risk of a direct confrontation with Russia.
"The Hungarian public cannot even imagine how close we are to a war," the premier said.
In his words, the current situation illustrates serious differences within NATO, where the United States favors a peaceful resolution of the Ukrainian conflict, while its European allies want the hostilities to continue. "Previously, it was hard to imagine Europe doing something to which the United States has clearly said ‘no,’" Orban added.
In his opinion, the vast majority of Europeans do not want an armed conflict to break out, but various interest groups that make profit from military contracts incite politicians to maintain the conflict in Ukraine. At the same time, European Union leaders want Europe to be ready for a war with Russia by 2030, the premier added.
Orban said he considered preventing this dangerous scenario and averting a direct European military confrontation with Russia as his mission.
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