Orbán insists Ukraine should remain 'buffer' state, offers strategic cooperation with EU instead of membership
Hungary is offering Ukrainians strategic cooperation rather than final integration into the EU due to fears of being drawn into a war, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said on the X platform on Friday.
Orbán published a fragment of his own interview with a Hungarian television channel in the post.
"Hungary proposes strategic cooperation with Ukraine - pragmatic, flexible, and rooted in mutual interest - not irreversible integration. EU membership for Ukraine would drag the war into the heart of Europe, a risk our families should not have to face," the Hungarian prime minister said on X.
"We have an offer for Ukrainians, as we do not see them [Ukrainians] as enemies. They may see us that way, but we do not see them as such. We believe that what is needed between Ukraine and the European Union is a well-structured cooperation. A reasonable, well-structured cooperation that does not pose a risk of war to the Union. So membership is out of the question because that is irreversible. Once we admit a country and also take on its fate," Orbán said in an interview he published on X.
"And Ukraine's fate today is that it is a buffer state neighboring Russia. That is not a fate we are willing to take on. The Hungarians have only just escaped from that. We too were a buffer state during the Cold War. We were not part of the Soviet Union, but we were on the western perimeter of the Soviet Union, on the eastern perimeter of the Western world, but we were a buffer. We... do not want to return to that position. Ukraine is in that situation. It may be uncomfortable, it may not be good, and someone wants to escape from it, but the fact is that the country cannot change its address," Orbán added.