Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto has accused Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky of trying to drag NATO into an armed conflict with Russia and condemned his criticism of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s peacekeeping efforts, Paralel.Az reports citing TASS.

According to the Hungarian mass media, Zelensky, who was invited to a summit of the European Political Community in the United Kingdom on July 18, slammed Orban’s recent visit to Moscow as a betrayal of Europe.

The top Hungarian diplomat warned however that neither Kyiv’s accusations nor Brussels’ criticism would have any impact on his country’s actions. "We will continue our peacekeeping mission because if we fail to achieve success, if we fail to reach peace soon, we may be looking at a very bad situation where more atrocious things are done on the frontline, the risk of the conflict escalation goes up, the situation runs amok and we see all of Europe on fire. Because I see that there are a lot of people, including the [Ukrainian] president, who are seeking to drag NATO into this war," he said after talks with his visiting Lebanese counterpart, Abdallah Bou Habib.

He went on to defend Orban and his peace mission, recalling that the conflict continues killing people and forcing them to flee their homes, while the authorities are banning them from leaving the country in violation of human rights under the passive eye of international human rights organizations. "We say that peace in Ukraine is needed and then the Ukrainian president addresses the Hungarian prime minister with such disrespect that I can barely hold my tongue," he said, commenting on Zelensky’s statements.