Russia wants to make Ukraine ‘ungovernable’: Viktor Orban

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said NATO countries will be forced to consider sending troops into Ukraine because Valdimir Putin won’t back down on his invasion.

The autocratic leader, frequently considered to be a Putin apologist, said the Russian president will continue to destroy the country he invaded ahead of his looming re-election next year.

Orban told the American Conservative that Russia missed its window to take Ukraine, which could have been possible with a quick victory. Instead, he said, Putin is now trying to make Ukraine an “ungovernable wreck” so the West cannot later claim it as a trophy.

“It’s Afghanistan now,” he said. “The land of nobody.”

The phrase can also be interpreted as “No man’s land.”

Orban, who said during a public radio interview Friday that Hungary was not at war with Russia despite international pressure to get more involved, warned that NATO will be faced with the question of whether to send troops to fight for Ukraine if Russia’s widely expected spring offensive is successful.

The West is “in a war with Russia,” he said. “That’s the reality. Every day we are moving further in.”

He pointed to Germany’s decision to send 14 Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine as representative of the West’s increasing role in the conflict during the radio interview.

Orban’s comments comparing Ukraine to Afghanistan angered Ukrainian’s foreign ministry, which has since summoned Hungary’s ambassador to complain about the prime minister’s statements.

“Another despicable statement of Victor Orban to Ukraine,” Ukrainian foreign ministry spokesman Oleg Nikolenko wrote on Facebook. “Such statements are categorically unacceptable. Budapest is on its course to deliberately ruin Hungarian-Ukrainian relations, significantly undermining the possibility of further dialogue between the two neighboring countries.”

Nikolenko added that he would be having a “frank conversation” with Hungary’s ambassador.