Orban has stated his own vision of the post-war order and insists on Ukraine's return to the status of a "buffer zone" between NATO and Russia.
Points of attention
- Viktor Orban advocates for Ukraine to reclaim its role as a buffer state between NATO and Russia for regional peace and balance.
- Orban's proposal contrasts Russia's belief that the West is integrating Ukraine into NATO and the West's accusation of Russian attempts to eliminate Ukraine as a buffer zone.
- Orban suggests resolving the conflict through an international peace conference to define Ukraine's borders and status in Europe post-war.
Orban cynically called Ukraine a “buffer state”
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said that Ukraine should become a "buffer state" between the West and Russia after the war. He said this in an interview with Welt am Sonntag.
According to the Hungarian Prime Minister, the historical security model in Europe was supposedly based on the fact that after NATO's expansion in 1999, the eastern border of the Alliance was defined by Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and later by the Baltics, Bulgaria, Romania, and Slovakia.
He stated that Ukraine then became a "buffer" between NATO and Russia, and this, in his opinion, ensured balance and peace.
Ukraine became a buffer state… This guaranteed the military security of Europe. Today, Russia and NATO accuse each other of destroying this structure.
Viktor Orban
Prime Minister of Hungary
Orban outlined the positions of both sides. Russia, he said, believes that the West has armed Ukraine, "de facto integrated it into NATO," and wants to officially admit it to the Alliance, thereby allegedly upsetting the balance of power.
The West, on the contrary, accuses the Russian Federation of not accepting the post-NATO balance and wanting to seize Ukraine, eliminate it as a buffer, and advance further towards NATO's borders.
Orban stated that after the war, Ukraine should once again receive the status of a "buffer state", and the borders should be determined at an international peace conference.
Russia retains the territory agreed upon at the peace conference, and everything west of that line is Ukrainian territory, which will once again exist as a buffer.
