BUDAPEST, November 10. /TASS/. The Hungarian government knows from diplomatic and intelligence sources that, in March 2022, Ukraine refused to sign a peace agreement with Russia on US instructions, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban told Kossuth radio.

The Hungarian premier was asked to comment on former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder’s recent interview with Berliner Zeitung, in which he said that Ukrainian officials refused to conclude a peace agreement with Russia at the Istanbul talks in March 2022 as the United States precluded them from doing so. "What the German ex-chancellor said is a well-known fact in the world of diplomacy," Orban said.

"We know from all kinds of reports and intelligence sources that in Istanbul, in fact, the Russians and the Ukrainians concluded an agreement that the Ukrainians did not sign on instructions from the Americans," the Hungarian premier said. He also expressed confidence that "historians will one day learn about that," as "this information will be made public."

Ever since the Americans joined the action in Ukraine, Orban said, "the path has been not toward containing or localizing the conflict, but toward expanding and escalating it," and the conflict is becoming increasingly global. He urged efforts to isolate the conflict and pledged assistance in resolving it.

Meanwhile, according to Orban, "more and more people are being sent to the line of engagement and more and more weapons and money are being sent" to Ukraine. "We are happy to help, because we are a Christian country and we must send aid, but we are reluctant to use taxpayer money to buy weapons in support of the Ukrainian state," he concluded.