UNITED NATIONS, New York – Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjártó revealed in an interview with Fox News Digital that former President Donald Trump alone is his country’s “hope” for helping bring stability to a fraught and increasingly chaotic international security landscape. 

“We do believe that actually the game changer here can be the U.S. presidential election, in case President Trump wins,” Szijjártó said, referring specifically to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. “Because knowing Trump, I think it’s absolutely possible – absolutely likely – that with two phone calls he can end this conflict.” 

“No one else can do so,” he insisted. “I think only President Trump has the hope and our hope is all in President Trump to do this.”

When pressed on whether that could be understood as a preference for a second Trump administration, Szijjártó insisted that “We are not Americans, so we cannot say we prefer this or that.” 

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“What we can definitely say is the following: Politics is based on experience, and we have a clear experience about the term of President Trump in office, and we have clear experience from the terms when the Democrats were there,” he said. 

“From the aspect of the U.S.-Hungary relations and from the aspect of the global security situation, when it comes to the U.S.-Hungary relations, it’s obvious that during President Trump[‘s term] these relations have been on the top – best ever,” Szijjártó added. 

Trump and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán have done little to hide their rosy friendship, with Trump invoking the Hungarian leader as a “strong man of Europe” who speaks well of the former president. 

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Orbán proved this is a mutual dynamic when he chose to leave the NATO summit in Washington, D.C., earlier this year to instead meet with Trump in Mar-a-Lago in Florida to discuss foreign relations.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, left, with former President Donald Trump during his visit to Mar-a-Lago on Thursday, July 11, 2024. (@PM_ViktorOrban)

“Under President Trump, everything was under control,” Szijjártó said. “Since President Trump has left office, the whole global security situation is deteriorating, so, I mean, these are experiences.” 

“If we base it on our experience, we say yes, from a perspective of U.S.-Hungary relations, I think President Trump would bring another impetus, freshness, dynamism to this relationship, and I think if President Trump is elected, I think the world has a good chance to become a more peaceful place compared to the current situation.” 

Then-President Donald Trump, left, shakes hands with Viktor Orban, Hungary’s prime minister, at the West Wing of the White House in Washington, D.C., on Monday, May 13, 2019. (Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Szijjártó argued that “if you look at an administration which is led by a president and vice president, and we didn’t hear too much initiatives from the vice president … means to me that the vice president was part of the structure 100%.” He noted that this comment came from a personal opinion “based on logic” and not the opinion of the Hungarian foreign minister. 

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Hungary has attempted to pursue peace talks between Ukraine and Russia, positioning itself as a chief facilitator for resolving the conflict. Hungary assumed the presidency of the European Union as part of a rotating six-month structure.

Orbán seized on the opportunity to visit both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy within the first days after taking the seat, but European leaders moved quickly to stress that the role is purely ceremonial and that Hungary had no official capacity to represent Europe in any peace talks. 

Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto spoke with Fox News Digital on politics and tensions in the international security landscape. (Fox News Digital)

Szijjártó blasted those who criticized the Hungarian effort, claiming “those who have been criticizing us, the prime minister, the peace mission, have clearly been the pro-war politicians.” 

“They just simply don’t like that there is a country, there is a government, there is a prime minister in Europe who speaks direct language, who speaks honestly and who is not a hostage of the liberal mainstream,” Szijjártó said. “Therefore, it is very unpleasant and inconvenient for them that we are there and that we act, that we speak, that we make actions.”

Szijjártó resisted the idea that Ukraine should join NATO, noting that “including Ukraine into NATO would put us in a totally exposed situation, security-wise, because it would mean that NATO could be easily dragged into a war against Russia at any time, and this is something that we don’t want.” 

“Everyone knows that any kind of direct confrontation between NATO and Russia would mean an outbreak of Third World War immediately, and we have joined the NATO to enhance our security and not to make ourselves exposed,” he said.  

Several Ukrainian cities, including Zaporizhzhia, Ivano-Frankivsk, and Kyiv, were struck during a night of intense Russian shelling.

Russia launched six missiles and 78 Shahed drones at Ukraine overnight from Wednesday to Thursday, according to Ukraine’s air forces, which reported intercepting and destroying four missiles and 66 drones.

The attack on Zaporizhzhia injured at least eight people, including a 14-year-old boy, according to Governor Ivan Fedorov.

The State Emergency Service released a video of severely damaged residential houses with blown-out windows and shrapnel-pierced walls, reporting that 12 buildings were affected and 18 people evacuated.

“Launching strikes against the civilian population, and doing it at night, is the peak of Russian cynicism,” Fedorov wrote on his Telegram page. “Russia is a terrorist country. The world must stop this arbitrariness!!!” he added.

In a separate attack, the wreckage of a Russian drone damaged a critical infrastructure facility in Ivano-Frankivsk, causing a fire, but no one was injured.

The attack caused damage to power grids. Four central streets of the city and some of the adjacent ones remain without power. Power engineers are currently repairing the damage.

Some of the city’s educational institutions will have power outages for at least a day, while trolleybuses have stopped running on certain routes. The authorities plan to provide additional buses as replacements.

Russian missiles and drones target Kyiv for over five hours

Ukraine’s air defences also battled Russian missiles and drones over the capital Kyiv for over five hours, the Ukrainian Air Force said.

The attack injured at least two people, according to Ukraine’s Emergency Service. A nursery, a gas pipe and around 20 cars were damaged in the city, the Kyiv Military Administration said.

Long-range strikes have been a hallmark of Russia’s military campaign in Ukraine, now deep in its third year, often hitting civilian areas. Attacks on the electricity network have knocked out around 70% of Ukraine’s energy generation capacity, according to the United Nations, bringing blackouts as winter approaches.

Air defence systems are a critical need for Ukraine, and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was due to meet President Joe Biden in Washington on Thursday in an effort to ensure continuing US military support for his country.