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Peace efforts in Ukraine must be ramped up amid escalation risks — top Hungarian diplomat

"The last 1,000 days have shown that this war cannot be resolved on the battlefield," Peter Szijjarto said

Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto Peter Szijjarto

Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto

© Peter Szijjarto

MOSCOW, December 2. /TASS/. Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto has called for ramping up efforts to find a peaceful solution to the situation in Ukraine amid increased escalation risks.

At a meeting with his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, in Moscow, he said that his country’s government intends to intensify its peacekeeping mission, since "the risk of escalation in Ukraine is much higher now than it has ever been."

"The last 1,000 days have shown that this war cannot be resolved on the battlefield. So, it can be ended only through talks. Diplomatic channels must remain open for dialogue," he said.

"Those who close these diplomatic channels or criticize those keeping them open, in fact, don’t want peace," the top Hungarian diplomat said, adding that he hopes that his talks with Lavrov will help bring peace in Ukraine closer.

"A lot of dangerous and irresponsible decisions have been made in recent years" where Ukraine is concerned, he noted, adding that this creates threats to Hungary due to its geographical proximity to the conflict area.

According to Szijjarto, his country’s government has one more "absolutely clear goal: to develop relations with Russia in all spheres that are covered by sanctions." "I hope we will be able to make progress on these two tracks today," he said.

According to a post on his Facebook page (Facebook is banned in Russia due to its ownership by Meta, which has been designated as extremist), he also held talks with Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov.

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