Ukraine’s 45-year-old President Volodymyr Zelesnky called out Hungarian President Viktor Orban for not signing on to the Hague’s indictment in the International Criminal Court of 70-year-old Russian President Vladimir Putin for kidnapping Ukrainian children. Zelensky didn’t get charges against Putin for his Feb. 24, 2022 invasion, essentially taking a neutral position about the war itself. Zelensky thinks only Ukraine has suffered the brunt of the Russian invasion because the U.S. and European Union hasn’t given Ukraine all the military hardware necessary to battle the Russian Federation. From the outset, Zelensky asked for U.S. and NATO troops, demanding that Western power set up a no-fly-zone in Ukraine to stop Russian air strikes. President Joe Biden, 80, told Zelensky that sending U.S. or NATO troops would start WW III on the European Continent.
Hungary’s Foreign Minister Peter Szijaarto told Zelensky that Hungary has already paid “too high a price” for the Ukraine War, accepting refugees but, more importantly, dealing with the runaway inflation that’s harmed the Budapest economy. “If this statements means I respectfully thank Hungarians for welcoming and taking care of over a million refugees from Ukraine, and I respectfully thank them for continuing to send aid, then “you’re welcome, and you can count on us in the future,” said Szijarto, sarcastically responding to Zelensky’s criticism. Zelensky thinks that he’s defending European democracy, the excuse he often gives for continuing the Ukraine War. Zelensky and his 80-year-old benefactor, President Joe Biden, have refused to resolve the conflict at a neutral U.N. pace table. Zelensky thinks that only Ukraine suffers from the war with the Kremlin, not the EU.
Orban wants Zelensky to know that the Ukraine War has destabilized peace on the European Continent, regardless of who’s at fault. Biden and Zelensky insist that only Russia’s at fault, instructing the U.S. State Department to insist that the war would end if Russia pulled out all its troops from Ukraine. Zelensky and Biden know that Russia had troops in Ukraine before the Feb. 34, 2022 war and will have them in Ukraine after the war ends. Zelensky has been threatening a new offensive with hundreds of new tanks and armed personnel carrier, promising to end the war by year’s end. Pentagon officials, led by Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of State Gen. Mark Miley don’t expect, with all the new weapons, Ukraine to make much progress ridding the country of Russian forces. Zelensky opted for war with Kremlin, rather than take Putin’ offer to recognize the independence of Donetsk and Luhansk, Russian sovereignty over Crimea.
Szijarto criticized Zelensky for Hungary’s membership in NATO, something Ukraine doesn’t have, largely because NATO doesn’t want to fight Ukraine’s war with the Kremlin. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltengerg has not extended fast-track membership to Ukraine, for a number of reasons, including that the Kiev government is bankrupt, dependent on the U.S. and NATO to pay government salaries. “The Hungarian people have already paid too high a price for the war. Many Hungarians, members of the Hungarian community in Zakarpatia, have already been killed in this war,” Szijarto said. Ukraine can only join NATO by unanimous consent of all NATO members, something that wouldn’t happen today. Orban has no intent of approving Ukraine’s entrance into NATO or the EU. Because Ukraine has U.S. backing, Zelensky thinks the EU and NATO must follow.
Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel said today that all parties in the Ukraine conflict should keep an open mind about finding a political solution. Anyone suggesting a political settlement gets stinging criticism from Kiev, saying they’re taking Putin’s side. But as Orban and his Foreign Minister Szijarto says, Zelensky doesn’t doesn’t see the burden he puts on Europe and the world. Zelensky gambled going to war against the Kremlin and lost some 25% of Ukraine’s sovereign territory in the first year of war, losing Ukraine strategic Black Sea ports. Zelensky has been working feverishly to reclaim lost sovereign territory, refusing to resolve the conflict at the peace table. Zelensky thinks, with Biden’s backing, that he must defeat Russia on the battlefield before he can win concessions at the peace table. Yet Zelensky is the first to condemn Orban’s Hungary.
Promising a spring offensive to reclaim lost sovereign territory, Zelensky won’t come to the peace table, as Merkel suggested today, to resolve the conflict. Most heads of state in Europe want the conflict to end as soon as possible. Biden and Zelensky think with battlefield successes they’ll have a better bargaining chip at the peace table. Meanwhile, the war continues to kill and displace thousands of Ukrainian citizens, adding to the daily destruction of Ukraine’s war-torn infrastructure. Orban told the truth when he said Ukraine’s economy was “financially non-existent,” expecting the U.S. and EU to pay its basic expenses. No bankrupt country qualifies for EU or NATO membership, no matter what the sympathies. Orban said without U.S. and NATO financial support, the war would “end immediately.” Zelesnky has been given every opportunity to end the destructive Ukraine War, choosing instead to keep on fighting.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
