BUDAPEST, Hungary — President Joe Biden is “playing with fire” by encouraging Ukraine to use U.S.-supplied weapons to attack targets inside Russia, a top Hungarian foreign policy expert said in a recent interview with Breitbart News.
“This is clearly an escalation,” said Zoltan Koskovic, a geopolitical analyst at the Center for Fundamental Rights.
Biden on Thursday rejected concerns that the decision would directly involve the US in the Ukraine war, insisting he only authorized the use of the weapons near the Ukraine-Russia border, where Russian forces are pushing into Ukraine.
“We’re not talking about giving Russia weapons to attack Moscow or the Kremlin, to attack across the border where they are under intense attack with conventional weapons that they are using to invade Ukraine and kill Ukrainians,” Biden said in an interview with ABC News’ David Muir.
But despite the restrictions, Koskovich said, “This is playing with fire.”
“I am afraid that Russia has a tendency to escalate suddenly. Such a sudden escalation was in 2014 when they occupied Crimea and again in 2022 when they launched an all-out war. I am very afraid of what Russia’s next sudden escalation will be. Every step of escalation in this war is a step in the wrong direction,” he said.
Koskovich argued that if Biden doesn’t want to send U.S. troops to the ground, he needs to de-escalate the situation in Ukraine.
“I believe Joe Biden has said that he does not want US troops on the ground, that he does not want US soldiers to die in Ukraine, but if that is his aim, he must understand that there is no room for further escalation. Simply put, the Ukrainian military cannot successfully conduct offensive operations with its current troop levels and mobilization base. This means that if he refuses to involve US troops in this deadly war, he must find ways to de-escalate,” he said.
Koskovich acknowledged that his calls for de-escalation in Ukraine are unpopular in the mainstream liberal media and even among some of his conservative colleagues, but he said Ukraine’s own military strength means it cannot win without involving Western troops, and that “should be a red line for all of us.”
He said that even if American F-16 fighter jets arrived in Ukraine, they were 51 years old and would not be able to defeat Russian anti-aircraft weapons.
“The F-16s did not fly into Syrian airspace and there is a reason for that: modern anti-aircraft weapons are very powerful,” he said. “There is still a possibility that the F-16s could be used in this war. [but] “I don’t think they can be a game changer. What’s next? They need to de-escalate.”
Ernö Sallah-Baros, a member of the ruling Fidesz party and a member of the Prime Minister’s Office’s committee of ministers, said he was worried about World War III.
“we [the] “World War III,” Sharrer Barros said in a recent interview with Breitbart News.
“First they said they would send only helmets. Then they said they would send small arms and grenades. Then they said they would send tanks. Then they also sent F-16s. And now they have decided that Ukraine can use these weapons to fight Russia. We are talking about nuclear energy here. This madness must stop,” he said.
“We have to stop this. The front has not moved for two years and people are dying,” he said.
Koskovics said the conservative majority in Hungary’s government wants the Americans to elect Donald Trump, who has said he would end the war within 24 hours of taking office.
“The president has made it clear that one of his top priorities is to end this war as quickly as possible because he understands that this war is no longer in America’s interests,” Koskovich said.
“If there was a period of decline for the Russian army during this war, it is over. They have reached a minimum level of competence and are starting to rebuild. Soldiers are learning how to fight. War is the best training instructor,” he said.
He argued:
Russian technology is advancing rapidly. Think of the progress that the loitering munitions called “Lancet” have shown in the last 16 months, or of Russia’s new guided bombs. They have turned a very stupid, very cheap Soviet-style bomb into a precision weapon, the cost of which is estimated at about $15,000 to $20,000. And they have hundreds of thousands of such bombs. The Russian military is not back to where it was before February 2022, but it is on a path of improvement. So if your objective was to weaken the Russian military, they are no longer weakened. So the next step, the next logical step, is to freeze the conflict and start negotiations.
He said the U.S. defense industry was not yet producing enough of the 155mm shells needed to counter Russia.
“Currently, the US defense industry is producing 40,000 of these shells per month. There are plans to increase production to 100,000 by 2028, four years from now. As things stand, the number of shells used by the Ukrainian armed forces to maintain effective and efficient offensive operations will be 15,000 per day. Let’s negotiate,” he said.
Sharrer Baros said she hoped “pro-peace conservatives” would win a majority in Sunday’s European Parliament elections, to increase pressure for a ceasefire.
“We need more politicians in the European Parliament and the European Commission who stand up for peace,” said current MEP Sharrer Baross.
The next step, he said, is to “elect a pro-peace president in the United States elections in November.”
When asked which of the US presidential candidates she thought would be better for peace, Sharrer Barros replied: “The message is very clear. Donald Trump and President Trump have always said that in the first months of his presidency, he would promote peace in the east and that that is the most important thing.”
He disagreed with the idea that supporting the ceasefire was a pro-Russian position.
“It is clear that aggression came from Russia. According to international law, Russia is the aggressor in this war. But the only solution to this war is peace, that is, an immediate ceasefire in Eastern Europe,” he said.
“People are dying every day on the front. For two years now there has been a stalemate on the eastern front. They are not moving at all. No one is winning this bloody war. People, youth, young people are dying. The only normal Christian position on this issue is that peace is needed immediately,” he said.
“In Brussels they said, ‘After the first sanctions, the second sanctions, the third sanctions’ – I think there have been 14 different sanctions already – ‘The war will be over.’ The war is not over, so we need to push for a ceasefire. That is the only normal reaction to this situation, the only European Christian reaction. We need peace in Ukraine,” he said.
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