The analogy isn’t a new one — but commentators have long referred to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine as President Vladimir Putin’s Afghanistan, given some of the parallels between the two wars.
Beginning in 2001 immediately after the Sept. 11 attacks and ending in 2021 with the abrupt withdrawal of U.S. troops, the war in Afghanistan remains the longest American war in history.
“Endless war, endless conflict, no way out of the conflict, eating up energy, human lives, money, everything,” Orbán said, continuing with his comparison. “Destroying the frame of normal life for the European Union. … We are in serious danger.”
Orbán, who is one of the few European leaders to remain friendly with Putin, repeated Kremlin talking points that Russia invaded Ukraine in a bid to stop it from joining NATO.
On Friday, he defended himself against charges that he is allied with Putin. “I’m not a pro-Putin man, I’m a pro-Hungarian guy,” he said.
“The difficulty is … how to convince the Russians to stop the war while the Russians are basically winning,” Orbán added. “This is the big question.”