WARSAW, December 1. /TASS/. The Western countries should keep channels of communication with Russia open in order to achieve a peace resolution of the conflict in Ukraine and prevent it from escalating into a wider military confrontation, Hungary’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Peter Szijjarto, said at a meeting of OSCE foreign ministers in Lodz, Poland.
"We need channels and platforms for communication [with Russia]. Without them, there can be no hope for peace [in Ukraine]," Szijjarto said. He recalled that wide enough political and diplomatic relations between the West and the Soviet Union during the Cold War era made it possible to prevent their ideological confrontation from escalating into a hot war. Szijjarto stressed that Hungary, which at that time belonged to the socialist bloc, knew this better than the others.
He believes that the recent incident involving the fall of a Ukrainian missile in eastern Poland could have been "the first step towards World War III, had that country's leadership failed to display restraint and responsibility. Szijjarto criticized those politicians and journalists who, without looking at the situation closely enough, hurried to produce false judgements.
"Acing this way in such situations is very dangerous," he stressed.
Speaking about the need for seeking a peace settlement of the conflict in Ukraine, Szijjarto pointed to the onset of the cold season, which will further aggravate the fuel, thermal power and electricity shortages.
"Winter is another argument in favor of peace in Ukraine," Szijjarto said.