Hungarian officials condemn French general’s call for Europe to accept ‘losing its children’ in future war with Russia
By Thomas Brooke | Remix News | November 21, 2025
Hungarian officials are sharply criticizing what they describe as a dangerous escalation in European war rhetoric after France’s top general warned the public to prepare for the possibility of losing “its children” and enduring economic hardship in the event of a future conflict with Russia.
In a post on X, Balázs Orbán, a Hungarian MP and political director to Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, accused Paris of normalizing the prospect of war. “When Emmanuel Macron’s top general says Europe must be ready to accept losing its children and suffer economically for war, something is deeply wrong. Hungary rejects this logic — we work for peace, not for sending our children into war,” he wrote.
His criticism followed remarks by Fabien Mandon, the Chief of Staff of the French Armed Forces, who delivered a stark warning about Europe’s readiness. In a speech on Nov. 18, Mandon told an audience that Western European countries “must be ready for a possible clash with Russia within three to four years, and this cannot be kept secret from the public any longer.”
The general argued that deterring Moscow would require mobilizing national resources and societal resolve. “All knowledge, all economic and demographic power must be directed to deter the Moscow regime from trying any further,” he said.
Mandon stressed that young soldiers already serving, who are “between 18 and 27 years old,” rely on public backing. “They persevere in their mission if they feel that the country is with them,” he said. But he warned that France could be endangered if it hesitates in the face of potential suffering. “If our country backs down because it refuses to accept losing its children, or if it has to endure economic hardship because priorities are directed, for example, to defense production, then we are in danger.”
The comments sparked immediate backlash in Budapest, where officials argued that France’s top military leadership is preparing society for large-scale conflict instead of seeking de-escalation.
Budapest described the statements as evidence of “war psychosis” taking hold in Western Europe, reaffirming Hungary’s stance that peace negotiations should guide Europe’s approach.
Hungary has long been an advocate for a peace deal facilitated by U.S. President Donald Trump and has refused to provide ammunition to the frontline.
Earlier this week, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán accused the European Commission of “astonishing” irresponsibility after receiving a letter from Commission President Ursula von der Leyen urging member states to provide additional financial support to Ukraine.
Orbán said the request came “at a time when it has become clear that a war mafia is siphoning off European taxpayers’ money,” claiming Brussels was asking for more cash rather than demanding oversight or suspending payments. He was referring to the recently exposed corruption scandal enveloping the country.
“This whole matter is a bit like trying to help an alcoholic by sending them another crate of vodka. Hungary has not lost its common sense,” he wrote.
Orban to EU Hawks: Embrace Trump’s Ukraine Peace Plan or Risk Wider War
Sputnik – 22.11.2025
Donald Trump’s 28-point peace plan for Ukraine has brought Europe to a decisive crossroad, warned Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
Europe’s hardliners are staring at “two paths,” Viktor Orban wrote in a post on X.
“Brusselian bureaucrats” can still reverse course from a “dead end” and rally behind Trump’s peace initiative.
According to him, this would require pro-war politicians to finally confront an uncomfortable truth: that the past 3.5 years have been spent pouring Europeans’ hard-earned money into a conflict “that cannot be won on the battlefield.”
The second option, he warned, “leads straight into war.”
If Europe’s warmongers choose to keep funneling money and weapons to Ukraine without US backing, they will “pave the way for a European–Russian conflict.”
Orban reminded that Europeans “know all too well where that road leads”—and that history’s verdict on such choices has often been tragic.
For Hungary, he said, the decision is already settled, as it will take “the path of peace.”
“This is the mandate given to us by the Hungarian people, and it is what morality and common sense demand,” Orban noted.
He added that he is sending a letter to the President of the European Commission to formalize Hungary’s position.
Hungary: Major opposition news portal funded by USAID, NED as well as Soros foundation to spread disinformation
Remix News | November 21, 2025
Hungary’s Office for the Protection of Sovereignty has revealed new details regarding the Telex news portal and the funding it has received from the United States, including USAID.
Telex has claimed that it does not depend on foreign funding, but year after year, according to an analysis by the Office, it has received money from foreign governments, including the U.S., and Brussels, reports the Mandiner news portal.
Of note is that Telex received $10,000 through the Internews EPIC applications implemented within the framework of USAID’s activities in Hungary.
USAID and its activities have since been terminated by the Trump administration.
According to the office, headed by Tamás Lanczi, the president of the Office for the Protection of Sovereignty, Telex received the money from the machine controlled as a political weapon by the democratic American government through the “Independent Media Center.”
The Office for Sovereignty Protection has already identified the Internews Foundation in previous reports as a key player in the media manipulation machine that the American deep state has been operating for more than four decades.
Among the organization’s funders are: USAID, used by the Biden administration to fund political interventions around the world, George Soros’ Open Society Foundations, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), which has been described in detail in the office’s previous reports.
NED, Mandiner notes, played a major role in the illegal foreign campaign financing of the opposition coalition in the 2022 parliamentary elections.
Internews provides media outlets not only with money, but also with technology and content suitable for spreading narratives, which must represent given values and messages and produce activity on designated topics.
The condition for the support, the Office emphasized, is the creation of narratives that allow the American progressive elite to put pressure on the governments and decision-makers of the given countries, and to influence the citizens of the given country.
The organization is highly active in the Central European region, primarily in Hungary and Poland. Its joint media development programs with USAID have played a role in the operation of certain Hungarian media outlets since 2010 in the form of tenders, professional training, and infrastructure support.
The Office’s investigations revealed that, in exchange for money, Internews expects the media outlets to make the topics it determines part of the public discourse, to frame narratives that are contrary to the interests of the client as disinformation, and to provide the funded editorial offices with mandatory content.
As Tamás Lánczi wrote previously, “Telex.hu journalists received almost HUF 200 million of U.S. government money.”
The president of the Office for the Protection of Sovereignty announced that documents reviewed by his organization show that the project called Telex Academy was also implemented with a grant of approximately $740,000 from the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor (DRL) of the United States Department of State.
The vast majority of the money was paid to Telex journalists.
Ukrainian attacks on Russian refineries driving price hikes in the US – Bloomberg
RT | November 16, 2025
Ukrainian strikes on Russian energy facilities are contributing to rising oil prices in the US, Europe, and Asia, Bloomberg reported on Saturday.
The attacks, combined with outages at key plants in Asia and Africa, have removed millions of barrels of diesel and gasoline from the global market, the outlet said. US sanctions on Russian energy giants Lukoil and Rosneft in October, along with restrictions imposed by the EU, have also helped drive prices higher.
Refining margins in the US, Europe, and Asia are now at their highest levels for this time of year since at least 2018, Bloomberg said, citing its own calculations. Additional pressure has come from shutdowns and outages at refineries in Kuwait and Nigeria.
Ukraine has targeted oil depots, processing plants, and metering stations with drones and missiles, calling them legitimate facilities that support Russia’s “war machine.” Russia, in turn, has struck elements of Ukraine’s power grid, saying the infrastructure supports the Ukrainian military.
In August, Hungary imposed sanctions on Ukraine’s top drone commander, Robert Brovdi, after repeated strikes disrupted the flow of crude through the Soviet-era Druzhba pipeline.
Hungary Not Obliged to Fund Ukraine, No Reason to Do So – Orban
Sputnik – 03.11.2025
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said Hungary is not obliged to finance Ukraine and has no moral, political or economic reason to do so.
Orban quoted an article in British magazine The Economist — which calculated that Ukraine would need $400 billion over the next four years to continue the war against Russia
The sum would cover weapons, reconstruction, pensions and salaries, the magazine reported.
“Once again, Europe is expected to foot the bill,” Orban wrote on X. “There’s no one else left willing to pick up the tab.”
“That’s why Brussels is so agitated. That’s why they want to seize frozen Russian assets, overhaul the EU funding system, and take on new loans,” he charged.
“We reject this. It’s not Hungary’s job to finance Ukraine,” Orban insisted. “We have no reason to do so: not politically, not economically, not morally.”
He said Hungary was not alone in that viewpoint, but Budapest was the most outspoken in expressing its opinion.
That was why Hungary is under attack from Brussels, Orban added, accusing EU of seeking to install a compliant government in Budapest.
Russia insists that arms supplies to Ukraine hinder peace talks, directly involve NATO countries in the conflict and are “playing with fire.”
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has warned that any cargo of weapons for Ukraine would become a legitimate target for Russian attacks.
The Kremlin has stated that the West’s weapons shipments to Ukraine will not encourage peace talks and can only have a negative effect.
‘External attack’ could explain blast at Hungarian refinery using Russian crude – Orban
RT | October 30, 2025
An “external attack” may have been the cause of an explosion at Hungary’s largest oil refinery last week, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Thursday.
Writing on Facebook, Orban cited a report he received from investigators on the explosion and fire at the facility located in Szazhalombatta, saying the probe was still underway.
”We do not yet know whether it was an accident, malfunction or external attack,” Orban said, noting that “the Sazhalombatta refinery is one of the five most important strategic industrial plants in Hungary.”
“The Polish foreign minister advised Ukrainians to blow up the Druzhba oil pipeline. Let’s hope this isn’t the case,” he added.
The Szazhalombatta facility, also known as the Danube refinery, was built to process crude received via the Druzhba pipeline from Russia. Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski expressed hope that the link would be destroyed in an online spat last week with his Hungarian counterpart, Peter Szijjarto.
Orban said in his update that his government is negotiating with the refinery’s owner, MOL Group, to reign in rising petrol prices, which jumped following the incident.
The Hungarian leader is a longtime critic of the European Union’s response to the Ukraine conflict, particularly sanctions on Russia that he argues have caused significant damage to members of the bloc. Budapest insists that Russian energy is crucial for Hungary’s economic wellbeing and has accused Brussels of ignoring its concerns, including about Kiev’s attacks on the Druzhba pipeline.
The Sazhalombatta blast coincided with a similar incident at a Druzhba-connected oil facility in Ploiesti in southern Romania.
New Hungarian play shows key Orbán ally locked in box and beaten to death
By Liz Heflin | Remix News | October 29, 2025
A new play in Budapest, written and directed by Béla Pintér, shows a character being put in a box and beaten to death.
As graphic and perhaps unappealing as that may be for many theater-goers, there is an even bigger problem with “Kabuki”: Everyone agrees the character is made up to look like Maria Schmidt, a major ally of Hungarian PM Viktor Orbán and director of a few institutions, namely, the 20th Century Institute, the 21st Century Institute, and the House of Terror Museum.
As the opposition-friendly portal 444 wrote: “But then everything gets really rough when the Fidesz oligarch, Schanda (!) Vera, who looks like Mária Schmidt, asks the poet to be their party’s candidate. The man (…) reluctantly admits that he is unable to run, as he finds the way the government party is treating the martyred (Russian opposition leader) Alexei Navalny so outrageous. The woman is completely upset about this, as she doesn’t think Navalny is worth anything and believes that Russia has free elections, unlike the West.”
The portal continues, stating that “the woman annoys him so much” that he “throws her into a large box and beats her to death with a stick.”
One commentary in Mandiner hit home as to the boundaries being crossed “in the name of art.”
“Béla Pintér’s latest play, in which the beating of the director of the House of Terror Museum is played out on stage, is not art: it is at once hate speech, political incitement, and moral corruption. The play doesn’t make you think, it doesn’t invite dialogue – it just hits you. Both literally and figuratively.
“For someone to dramatize the death of a living, public figure and elevate it to a theatrical experience is not a brave gesture, but a tasteless, inhumane provocation,” wrote Katalin Szily, a member of Fidesz’s coalition partner, KDNP.
“Béla Pintér and his company have now abused this responsibility. This is not satire, not social criticism, but cold cynicism and intellectual vandalism. And the viewer, who watches and applauds, unwittingly becomes part of this ritual of hatred,” she continued.
“Where is the line? Where do we draw the line? Tomorrow, maybe they’ll stage the execution of politicians and journalists and applaud?”
Szily also poignantly asks, “Where, oh where, are the voices in the name female solidarity?”
Author Gabor Bokor also wrote: “Béla Pintér is an important figure in the Hungarian theater world, a pioneer of alternative stage plays, with which he has gained many fans.”
“We can think whatever we want about Mária Schmidt’s statements, we can criticize her in a play, this is part of artistic freedom, but I beg you: Kill her?” he asks.
Building European Security Without Russia ‘Unrealistic’, Warns Hungary’s Top Diplomat
Sputnik – 28.10.2025
Building the architecture of European security without Russia is unrealistic, Foreign Minister of Hungary Peter Szijjarto said on the sidelines of the 3rd International Conference on Eurasian Security in Minsk.
Szijjarto also said he hopes for success of the talks between Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and US President Donald Trump and hopes Washington will understand the position of Budapest, whose energy security is impossible without Russia.
“Our energy security is based on our honest and reliable energy cooperation with Russia. Our historical experience shows that this cooperation has always been reliable and effective. Therefore, we hope that our energy security will not be violated. We hope that the conversation between our Prime Minister and the President of the United States in the second half of next week will also be successful from this point of view,” Szijjarto told reporters on the sidelines of the 3rd Minsk International Conference on Eurasian Security.
The Hungarian side “will talk in great detail about our energy supply situation and hopes that it will be treated with respect,” the minister said.
Hungary hopes that the Russian-US summit in Budapest will take place, the question is about timing of preparations, he added.
“We were looking forward to the phone call between [US] President [Donald] Trump and [Russian] President [Vladimir] Putin announcing the possibility of a peace summit. We are happy to host it. We understand that neither side has abandoned this plan. The question is the timing and the content. Therefore, we hope that preparations will move forward and the summit will ultimately take place,” Szijjarto told reporters on the sidelines of the third Minsk International Conference on Eurasian Security.
Refinery Fires Help EU Topple Pro-Peace Governments to Wage War on Russia
Sputnik – 23.10.2025
While it is too early to tell who exactly is responsible for the recent fires at the refineries in Hungary and Romania as investigations are still ongoing, figuring out who benefits from them is easier, Endre Simó, the president of the Hungarian Community for Peace, tells Sputnik.
According to Simo, it is “those who want to gain a market with their own products by displacing cheaper Russian products.”
“Given the history, namely the explosion of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline and the series of Ukrainian attacks against the Druzhba oil pipeline, intentionality cannot be ruled out either in Hungary or Romania,” he points out.
He further notes that the main victim of these incidents is Serbia which, due to its only significant refinery being targeted by US sanctions, is forced to rely heavily on the now-damaged MOL’s refinery in Százhalombatta.
Thus, the refinery fires are also a boon to those seeking to overthrow the pro-peace government of Viktor Orban in Hungary and Alexandar Vucic in Serbia, and using “impermissible means” to meddle in Hungary and Serbia’s internal affairs “in order to bring opposition forces that serve the Brussels policy to power.”
Refinery Fires in Europe Are Part of EU Crusade Against Russian Oil and Gas
Sputnik – 23.10.2025
The timing of the recent incidents at the oil refineries in Hungary and Romania is very suspicious in light of the threats from Poland, Dr. George Szamuely, senior research fellow at The Global Policy Institute, tells Sputnik.
When Polish Foreign Minister Sikorsky openly justifies the Nord Stream bombing and then tries intimidating Hungary into giving up Russian oil, and then suddenly the refineries are ablaze – that’s one hell of a coincidence.
The refinery fires were definitely a part of a broader campaign to cut off the flow of Russian energy to Europe, Szamulely notes – a campaign that ends up hurting the EU members but fails to affect Russia.
“These measures that the EU is adopting are measures directed towards hurting EU member states, forcing them into line,” he explains.
Only the Russophobic EU bureaucrats like Ursula von der Leyen and Kaja Kallas benefit from this disruption of energy supply chains, and they are eager to “punish anybody at all who is not on board with their program.”
The incidents in Hungary and Romania convey a simple message: “if you are going to keep importing your fossil fuels from Russia, look at the sort of things that can happen, all sorts of explosions, fires, sabotage.”
Hungary cannot meet energy demands without Russia – FM
Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto. © Getty Images / Sefa Karacan; Anadolu
RT | October 15, 2025
Hungary cannot meet its energy needs without Russian oil and gas and has no intention of abandoning supplies, Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto has said. Speaking at the Russian Energy Week forum in Moscow, Szijjarto stressed that Hungary’s energy security depends on existing supply routes and long-term contracts with Russian companies.
Brussels has repeatedly demanded that all EU members cut off ties with Moscow and stop purchasing Russian energy. Szijjarto said Hungary has been pressured to refuse Russian deliveries in the name of “diversifying” its imports, but dismissed the argument as “insane” and “completely illogical.” He questioned how abandoning one source of energy could possibly be described as diversification.
The minister warned that if Hungary were cut off from Russian gas supplies, it “will not be able to ensure the necessary fuel supplies.” He said the same applies to Russian crude oil delivered via the southern branch of the Druzhba pipeline. According to Szijjarto, other hydrocarbon routes cannot currently replace the volumes provided through the TurkStream gas pipeline and the Druzhba network.
Szijjarto praised Hungary’s cooperation with Russian energy companies, noting that they have never failed to meet contractual obligations. “If we needed more, they provided more; if we needed less, they provided less. Contract terms have always been honored, so why should we suddenly sever these relations?” he said. The minister added that thanks to its partnership with Russia, Hungary remains in a secure position regarding energy supplies.
The EU has called for a complete phase-out of Russian energy imports by 2027, though several member states, including Hungary and Slovakia, continue to rely on Russian crude delivered via Druzhba. In recent months, Ukrainian attacks on energy infrastructure connected to the pipeline have intensified, worsening tensions between Kiev and Budapest.
Szijjarto has said the strikes on Druzhba amount to an attack on Hungary’s sovereignty and urged the EU to ensure the security of the bloc’s energy supplies.
Moscow has described Brussels’ efforts to abandon Russian energy in favor of more expensive US alternatives as “suicidal.”
Hungary accuses Polish PM of ‘defending terrorists’
RT | October 9, 2025
Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto on Wednesday accused Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk of “defending terrorists,” over comments about the sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipelines.
Tusk had claimed the day before in a post on X that “the problem with North Stream 2 is not that it was blown up. The problem is that it was built.”
The Nord Stream pipelines, which carried Russian natural gas to Germany along the Baltic Sea floor, were blown up soon after the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022.
Szijjarto condemned the Polish prime ministers post in a reply, asking what else the Polish prime minister could find “forgivable or even praiseworthy.”
“According to Donald Tusk, blowing up a gas pipeline is acceptable,” he wrote.
“That’s shocking… One thing is clear: we don’t want a Europe where prime ministers defend terrorists,” he added.
Tusk also argued on Tuesday that it is not in Poland’s interest to hand over a Ukrainian man German investigators believe was involved in the Nord Stream sabotage.
While Berlin’s prosecutors have attributed the sabotage to a small group of Ukrainian nationals, Moscow has dismissed the version of events as “ridiculous.” Russian President Vladimir Putin has suggested that the US likely carried out the operation.
The EU has called for a total cut of Russian energy by 2027, but some bloc members like Slovakia and Hungary rely on Russian crude delivered via the Soviet-era Druzhba oil pipeline.
Ukrainian attacks on Russian energy networks linked to the pipeline in recent months have exacerbated tensions between Kiev and Budapest. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has accused Ukraine of working to compromise his nation’s energy security because of his opposition to Kiev’s EU bid.
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Panama: A Grieving People Recalls 30 Years of the US Invasion
teleSUR | December 20, 2019
For the first time over the last 30 years, Panamanian authorities agreed to declare “National Day of Mourning” on December 20, which is the date on which the United States invaded Panama in 1989.
“The government acknowledges declaring December 20 as a day of national mourning to honor Panamanians and all the innocents who lost their lives and defended our territory’s integrity,” President Laurentino Cortizo tweeted on Wednesday.
On Dec. 20, 1989, President George H.W. Bush ordered “Operation Just Cause” and deployed some 26,000 soldiers to overthrow General Manuel Antonio Noriega.
Until then, he had been one of the most faithful collaborators of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).
Noriega fueled the Bush administration’s hostility when he requested the closure of “The School of the Americas,” where the U.S. had trained thousands of Latin American military since 1946. Upon losing Washington’s support, however, the U.S. Department of Justice accused him of drug trafficking. … continue
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