BRUSSELS, June 24. /TASS/. The Hungarian prime minister’s advisor for political affairs, Balazs Orban, believes that the European Union should step away from the policy of sanctions and engage in talks with Moscow about a ceasefire in Ukraine.

"At the end of the day Europe will be on the losing side of this war because of the economic problems. Our recommendation would be that we should stop the sanction process," he said. "Right now what we experience is that the more sanctions we accept, the worse shape we are in."

"So we have to think about something. Negotiations, ceasefire, peace. Diplomacy. That's our solution," Orban added.

In his view, sanctions turned out to be unable to seriously hurt Russia and stop the conflict in Ukraine.

On February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a special military operation in Ukraine in response to a request from the leaders of the two Donbass republics. The Russian leader stressed that Moscow had no plans to occupy Ukrainian territories but that the goal was to demilitarize and denazify the country.

The West responded with sweeping sanctions against Russia. Also, Western countries have so far supplied billions of dollars worth of arms and military equipment to Kiev. Some Western politicians have acknowledged that an economic war is being waged against Russia. Putin said in March the West’s policy of sanctions on Moscow had been showing all signs of aggression, with its containment of Russia being a long-term strategy.