Orban says Hungary being 'dragged into war' as in WWII
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Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Friday accused NATO of "dragging" his country into war over Ukraine, comparing it to how he said Adolf Hitler pressured it into joining in World War II.
Orban has drawn fierce criticism from Western nations for refusing to send weapons to Kyiv to help it fight off Russia's invasion, advocating peace talks with Moscow instead.
He is the only EU leader to have maintained close ties with the Kremlin following the invasion.
The nationalist leader has stepped up his attacks on Brussels and NATO ahead of EU elections on June 9, accusing them of fuelling the war in Ukraine by providing support.
"It is absurd that NATO, instead of protecting us, is dragging us as a member state into a world war. This is as absurd as a firefighter deciding to come and put out a fire with a flamethrower," Orban said on Hungarian state radio.
"Due to the debate, I revisited the written records of the negotiations between Hitler" and the Hungarian WWII-era leader Miklos Horthy, Orban said.
Horthy, an autocrat who ruled Hungary from 1920 to 1944, passed anti-Jewish laws and oversaw the deportations of several hundred thousand Hungarian Jews to Nazi death camps.
"It is entirely clear from these documents that Hungary (was) under tremendous pressure to send more soldiers to the front as quickly as possible and... to deport more Jews from Hungary," Orban said on Friday.
"I am not claiming that what we are currently experiencing... has reached the same level as it was then, but we are moving in that direction," he added.
He said that Hungary "didn't want to participate in either World War I or World War II", but instead "was forced into war".
On Friday, Orban also slammed recent decisions by Western nations to allow Kyiv to use weapons they supply to Ukraine to fire at targets in Russia.
"The Russians have made it clear that the more powerful the weapons used against them, the further they will advance into Ukraine," he said.
He reiterated his claim that Russia had attacked Ukraine because of its NATO aspirations.