Hungary: The next three months of the Ukraine war will be “far more brutal”

• The Hungarian prime minister said the next two or three months of war would be “far more brutal.”
• Viktor Orbán referred to the amount of weapons, the troops on the battlefield and the commitment of both sides.
• He said he was on a “peace mission” to bring about a ceasefire and speed up peace talks.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said the next two to three months on the front lines in Ukraine before the US presidential election would be “far more brutal” than ever before.

The Hungarian president made the prediction on Sunday in an interview with media companies owned by Axel Springer. Business Insider is owned by Axel Springer.

“The energy of the confrontation, the number of deaths, lives lost and losses will be more brutal than in the last seven months, although the previous period was also very brutal,” Orbán said.

Orbán mentioned the amount of weapons on the battlefield, the “continuous advance” of Russian troops on the front lines and the general commitment of both sides.

“So what lies ahead is much worse than we now think,” he said.

The Hungarian head of state has visited Ukraine and Russia and is currently on a peacekeeping mission in China, according to an X-Post on Monday.

In the one-on-one interview, Orbán said the purpose of his meetings with world leaders was to achieve a “temporary” ceasefire to speed up peace talks.

To achieve this goal, Orbán says he is trying to change the US “war policy” and Europe’s policy, which he says is copying that of the US, so that world leaders can agree on a “peace policy”.

“If China, the United States and Europe want peace, it is much easier for the Ukrainians and the Russians to find a solution on how to stop the fighting, how to save lives, how to negotiate and how to find a lasting solution,” he said.

Orbán said Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, with whom he had spoken, both had a “clear vision” of how their respective countries would win the war. But the prospect of defeating Russia on the battlefield now was “completely incalculable,” he said.

Hungary will take over the rotating presidency of the EU Council for the next six months and Orbán said the European Union could not afford the “luxury” of being left out.

“My motivation is that if we want to do something and move from a policy of war to a policy of peace, now is the right time,” he said.

Orbán’s visit to Moscow last week was met with strong criticism from other EU and European leaders, who said Orbán had no mandate to negotiate with Russia on behalf of the EU.

His government has also repeatedly attempted to limit Western and NATO support for Ukraine since the start of the large-scale Russian invasion in February 2022, for example by blocking billions in aid for months.

In May, Orbán told Hungarian state radio that his lawyers and officials were working “hard” to change Hungary’s membership in the Western military alliance so that Hungary could no longer support Ukraine in its fight against the Russian invasion.

On Tuesday, NATO members will meet in Washington, DC, to mark the military alliance’s 75th anniversary while addressing some of its current challenges.