Orban repeats Russian propaganda on war against Ukraine during meeting with Putin

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in China. During the meeting, the Hungarian politician called the war in Ukraine a “military operation”.

The Kremlin calls its all-out war against Ukraine by the term “a special military operation”.

Russian propaganda media quoted Orban. The Hungarian prime minister met with Putin on 17 October in Beijing.

Orban calls Russia’s war against Ukraine a “military operation”

Thus, Russian media outlets have spread a fragment of a conversation during which Orban called the war aggressor country’s war against Ukraine a “military operation”. The video shows the phrase “katona műveletek”, which stands for “military operation” in Hungarian.

Hungarian MP Marton Tompos has already responded to this saying the following:

“No, Victor. What is happening in Ukraine is not a ‘special military operation’; it is a war. A war in which Hungarians from Transcarpathia are fighting. It’s a shame!”

Putin-Orban talks

Vladimir Putin met with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban in the Chinese capital, Beijing, on 17 October.

Putin said that Russia allegedly “maintains relations with many European countries, including Hungary”. The Russian dictator said this at the time when the European nations continued supplying Ukraine with weapons to fight Russian war aggression and full-scale military invasion.

The Russian president noted that recent relations between Hungary and Russia “have been built on considering each other’s interests”.

At the same time, Orban said that Hungary “never wanted to confront Russia” but rather that Hungary’s goal “was to establish and expand contacts”.

Read also: Orban asserts that Ukraine can’t win war vs Russia justifying EU aid blockage

Hungary’s government is consistent in its declarations and actions that fit Russia’s goal: Budapest opposes the EU sanctions against Russia, criticizes Western weapons supply to Ukraine, and blocks aid to Kyiv.

In the context of Orban’s claim that talks are needed, it’s not clear, nor he explains, how to start negotiations when Moscow shows little sign of concessions and of readiness to leave illegally occupied lands, and in addition, the Kremlin has almost no credibility that it will uphold any agreements.

Read also: Orbán’s propaganda machine effectively pushes the Kremlin’s narratives