©Evgeniy Biyatov; RIA Novosti
Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto has condemned the latest remarks from French President Emmanuel Macron about the option of sending troops to Ukraine, and has warned such a move could ultimately spark an all-out nuclear war.
Speaking to French broadcaster LCI on Thursday, Szijjarto was asked for his take on Macron’s renewed threat to deploy his country’s troops to back up Kiev. The diplomat strongly condemned the idea, saying that the French leader’s comments themselves have contributed to escalating the situation.
“If a NATO member commits ground troops, it will be a direct NATO-Russia confrontation and it will then be World War Three,” Szijjarto told the broadcaster.
Macron made fresh belligerent remarks in an interview with The Economist published Thursday, doubling down on previous statements about the prospect of deploying French troops to Ukraine. The president said his original remarks, made earlier this year, were a “strategic wake-up call for my counterparts.” He suggested that Paris could deploy troops “if the Russians were to break through the front lines” and a request for help came from Kiev.
©AFP/Attila Kisbenedek
Hungary’s top diplomat also criticized Macron’s idea that France’s nuclear weapons could become a part of a “credible European defense.”
“In peacetime it would be different, but in wartime such statements can be misinterpreted and have serious consequences,” Szijjarto stated, warning that, should the situation escalate into a global nuclear war, “it will be over for everyone.”
Speaking to Hungarian broadcaster M1 earlier in the day, the minister also rejected NATO’s proposed €100 billion ($107 billion) five-year plan for a war chest to prop up Ukraine, floated by Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, describing it as “madness.”
“In the coming weeks during negotiations we will fight for Hungary’s right to stay away from this madness, from collecting these 100 billion and siphoning them out of Europe,” Szijjarto stated.
Hungary has been consistently opposed to the growing involvement of both the US-led NATO and the EU in the Ukrainian conflict, refusing to support Kiev militarily, including through sending weaponry or training Ukrainian troops.
Kremlin accuses Macron and Cameron of dangerous talk
Recent statements made by French President Emmanuel Macron and British Foreign Secretary David Cameron are part of an ongoing “verbal escalation” by Western officials, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Friday.
In an interview with The Economist this week, Macron set out two key conditions for sending French troops to Ukraine: “If the Russians were to break through the front lines” and if there was a “Ukrainian request.” The French president also outlined his “strategic objective” of making sure Russia does not win in Ukraine, arguing that such a development would threaten European security.
Meanwhile, former UK Prime Minister and current Foreign Secretary David Cameron told Reuters on Thursday that London will continue to send Kiev some $3 billion annually “for as long as it takes” and suggested that Ukraine has every right to use British weapons to strike targets deep inside Russia.
Responding to these comments, Peskov said that the statements made by Macron and Cameron represent a “very dangerous trend” that could threaten security on the continent.
“France, represented by the head of state, continues to constantly talk about the possibility of its direct involvement on the ground in the conflict around Ukraine. This is a very dangerous trend, we are watching it closely,” the Kremlin spokesman stated.
As for Cameron’s assertion that Kiev can use British weapons to attack Russia, Peskov warned that such “verbal escalation” around the Ukrainian conflict could “potentially pose a danger to European security and the entire European security architecture.”
Despite these “concerning” trends, the Kremlin spokesman insisted that Moscow will continue to carry out its special military operation in Ukraine until all of its goals are achieved.
Earlier this week, Peskov had also addressed the concerns being raised by a number of European leaders about a supposed attack from Russia once the Ukraine conflict is over. The spokesman reiterated that Moscow has no plans or interest in targeting any European nations and dismissed the accusations as “horror stories” made up to distract people from domestic problems in their own countries.
“European capitals are escalating tension in every possible way… trying to fool their population with these horror stories about terrible Russians who will never stop and continue moving forward. That’s absolutely groundless,” Peskov said, adding that the officials pushing such claims may be trying to “compensate for the loss of their image, their rating.”
Similar statements were also made by Russian President Vladimir Putin in March, when he dismissed talk of a potential Russian attack on Europe as an attempt to scare local citizens in order to “extract additional money from people.”
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