{"id":307112,"date":"2025-04-20T06:55:19","date_gmt":"2025-04-20T06:55:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=307112"},"modified":"2025-04-21T06:24:47","modified_gmt":"2025-04-21T06:24:47","slug":"orban-declares-west-lost-proxy-war-to-russia-criticizes-eus-rudderless-ukraine-policy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=307112","title":{"rendered":"Orban declares west lost proxy war to Russia, criticizes EU\u2019s \u2018rudderless\u2019 Ukraine policy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Vijaya Laxmi Tripura \u2013 Weekly Blitz.net April 20, 2025<\/strong><\/h1>\n

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has delivered one of his most candid assessments yet of the West\u2019s involvement in the Ukraine conflict, asserting that the West has effectively lost<\/em> a \u201cproxy war\u201d with Russia. In a wide-ranging interview published<\/a> on April 17 on Hungary\u2019s OT YouTube channel, Orban echoed the sentiments long promoted by Moscow \u2013 that the war in Ukraine is not merely a local or regional conflict, but a geopolitical contest between Russia and the collective West, with Ukraine as its unfortunate battleground.<\/p>\n

As the leader of an EU member state, Orban\u2019s blunt statement that the West has \u201clost\u201d the war marks a significant divergence from the dominant narratives in Brussels, Berlin, Paris, and Washington. According to Orban, while \u201cEuropean leaders are hesitant to admit\u201d this defeat, the implications are severe: \u201cLosing a war is a serious thing,\u201d he warned.<\/p>\n

Orban\u2019s comments are a continuation of his longstanding criticism of the European Union\u2019s response to the war in Ukraine. Since the conflict began<\/a> in February 2022, Hungary has emerged as one of the most vocal dissenters within the EU, repeatedly objecting to sanctions on Russia, military aid to Ukraine, and proposals to fast-track Ukraine\u2019s EU membership. Budapest has frequently vetoed or delayed collective EU actions, positioning itself as a contrarian voice in an increasingly divided Europe.<\/p>\n

According to Orban, the West \u2013 especially Europe \u2013 miscalculated its strategy by unconditionally backing Ukraine with military, financial, and political support, believing that Russia could be isolated and defeated economically and diplomatically. \u201cThe entire Western world has lined up behind Ukraine,\u201d Orban said<\/a>. Yet, despite the sanctions and billions in aid, Russia has not collapsed, nor has the Ukrainian military achieved the kind of victories Western leaders had once anticipated.<\/p>\n

Worse, Orban suggested that the war has backfired for Europe. \u201cBrussels,\u201d he said, is \u201crudderless\u201d and clinging to hardline positions that have diminished its global relevance. In his view, European leaders are now trying to save face by offering Ukraine EU membership as a consolation prize \u2013 despite the fact, he argued, that Ukraine is no longer a fully sovereign state and cannot sustain itself without constant foreign assistance.<\/p>\n

This is not the first time Orban has cast doubt on Europe\u2019s commitment to Ukraine. In March, he told<\/a> the Patriota YouTube channel that the EU was feeding Kiev \u201cempty promises,\u201d adding that the bloc \u201cdoesn\u2019t have a single penny left\u201d to maintain its support. He questioned whether Brussels could continue to fund the Ukrainian military and government while facing its own economic troubles, rising inflation, and growing domestic discontent.<\/p>\n

Hungary\u2019s refusal to endorse a recent EU communique that called for increased military aid to Kiev underscores its growing isolation within the bloc \u2013 but also its resolve to stick to a contrarian position that aligns more closely with realist or \u201cpeace-first\u201d elements of international opinion.<\/p>\n

Orban also drew a sharp contrast between the United States under former President Joe Biden and under President Donald Trump, expressing a clear preference for the latter\u2019s approach to the conflict. \u201cTrump saved the US from a serious defeat,\u201d Orban claimed, adding that the former president\u2019s decision to avoid deep involvement in the conflict preserved American strategic interests while limiting its political exposure.<\/p>\n

This line of thinking aligns with Orban\u2019s broader worldview; he is skeptical of liberal internationalism, distrustful of multilateral institutions, and increasingly drawn to national conservatism. His close personal and political ties with Trump are well-documented, and he has previously stated that he believes Trump\u2019s return to the White House would lead to a negotiated peace settlement in Ukraine \u2013 something he sees as increasingly unlikely under Biden\u2019s administration.<\/p>\n

Orban\u2019s admiration for Trump also serves as a veiled rebuke of the current transatlantic consensus on Ukraine. While Washington and Brussels continue to stress the importance of \u201cstanding with Ukraine for as long as it takes,\u201d Orban believes that this stance is neither sustainable nor in Europe\u2019s interest.<\/p>\n

Orban\u2019s statements come at a time of increasing division within the EU over Ukraine. While many Western European nations remain committed to the idea of defeating Russia through sustained support for Ukraine, a growing number of member states \u2013 particularly in Central and Southeastern Europe \u2013 are beginning to question the costs, feasibility, and endgame of the West\u2019s involvement.<\/p>\n

Countries like Slovakia and Hungary have already expressed deep reservations about continued military support. There is also growing domestic fatigue across the continent, as voters in countries like Germany, France, and Italy express concerns over inflation, energy prices, and the perceived futility of the war effort.<\/p>\n

With elections looming in several EU member states, including the European Parliament elections in 2024, Orban\u2019s position may gain more traction. His government is already actively cultivating ties with other nationalist and euroskeptic parties across the continent.<\/p>\n

Orban\u2019s claim that the West lost the proxy war also raises uncomfortable questions about what a post-conflict Europe might look like \u2013 and how long the EU can maintain unity in the face of strategic failure.<\/p>\n

If the Ukrainian counteroffensive stalls permanently and Russian territorial gains are consolidated, many of the EU\u2019s current policies \u2013 from sanctions to accession talks \u2013 could be viewed not only as ineffective but deeply counterproductive. Orban warns that this will come with a cost to European credibility, especially if the bloc is perceived as clinging to moral victories while suffering strategic losses.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, as Orban has pointed out, prolonged war could turn Ukraine into a permanent welfare client of the West \u2013 an unsustainable burden for a bloc already facing numerous internal crises, from inflation to migration to political polarization.<\/p>\n

Whether Viktor Orban is merely an outlier or a harbinger of an eventual strategic rethink in Europe remains to be seen. But his consistent message is hard to ignore: Europe\u2019s current course on Ukraine is failing, the West has miscalculated the nature of the conflict, and unless a new approach is adopted \u2013 one that seeks peace rather than victory \u2013 the consequences for the continent could be dire.<\/p>\n

As the war grinds on with no end in sight, Orban\u2019s warnings serve as a reminder that beneath the surface of unity, Europe is far from monolithic in its vision for Ukraine \u2013 and the cracks are beginning to show.<\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While \u201cEuropean leaders are hesitant to admit\u201d this defeat, the implications are severe: \u201cLosing a war is a serious thing,\u201d says Hungary\u2019s prime minister.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":195120,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[91,116],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-307112","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-russia","category-ukraine"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307112","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=307112"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307112\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":307113,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307112\/revisions\/307113"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/195120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=307112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=307112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=307112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}