BUDAPEST, August 29. /TASS/. After the conflict in Ukraine is over, EU leaders and Vladimir Zelensky will have to answer as to why they sought to protract hostilities instead of doing what they must to achieve peace, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said.
According to the top Hungarian diplomat, due to the European Union’s serious political mistakes, including its military support for Ukraine and anti-Russian sanctions, Europe has turned into a "continent of war," has lost its competitive capacities and now is lagging behind the United States and China.
"Instead of putting an end to the war, they opted to expand it, which entailed apparent losses for Europe from the point of view of its socio-economic security, inflation, growing food, energy prices and so on. And once the war ends, European political leaders will have to answer the question of why they chose this strategy. It is becoming clear why Western European leaders are not interested in the cessation of the war," he said addressing the Transit annual political festival in Tihany on Lake Balaton shore.
He noted that over the three and a half years of hostilities the situation in Ukraine has deteriorated dramatically. "Half of the country is in ruins, hundreds of thousands of people have died, millions have become refugees seeking to escape an economic collapse, and so on and so forth. And if an agreement is signed now, it is obvious that because of the battlefield situation it cannot be more favorable for Ukraine than the deal that would have been done three years ago. That is why the question of why they did not want to negotiate three and a half years ago when a more advantageous deal was quite possible will be asked not only to the European leaders but also to the Ukrainian president," Szijjarto said.
Zelensky, in his words, will have to explain to the Ukrainians why he cut short peace talks with Russia in Istanbul in the spring of 2022. "Why wasn’t any peace agreement signed there? Who did such instructions come from and who forced Zelensky not to sign this agreement and continue the war? These are very serious questions the [European] political elite is reluctant to answer today," the top Hungarian diplomat emphasized.
The Russian and Ukrainian delegations held peace talks in Istanbul in the spring of 2022 and reached an agreement on settling the conflict. However, this agreement never took effect because Kiev changed its position due to the interference of Western leaders. The agreement bound Ukraine to proclaim its neutral, off-bloc status and refuse from deploying foreign-made weapons in its territory.