Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban believes that Ukraine should continue to exist after the conflict at most as a “buffer state“ between Russia and NATO.
“The only possible long-term solution is for the post-war order to be based on the fundamental principle that Ukraine becomes the buffer state it once was. “Russia retains the territory agreed upon at the international peace conference, and everything west of that line – all the way to NATO's eastern border – is the territory of a Ukrainian state, which will once again become a buffer state,“ he said in an interview with the newspaper “Welt am Sonntag“.
According to the Hungarian prime minister, as part of such a solution, NATO and Russia should agree “on the number and equipment of the limited Ukrainian armed forces that are allowed to operate in the buffer zone.“The two sides also provide guarantees that no one will subjugate this buffer state,“ he added. “This is a matter of negotiations; “International law provides the tools to create such a system of guarantees,“ Orbán concluded.
On November 28, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Orbán held talks in Moscow. The meeting between Putin as President and Orbán as Prime Minister, held in the Kremlin, was the 13th for the two leaders and the third since the inception of the Joint Military Cooperation Agreement. Putin and Orbán also maintain active telephone contact.