In her speech to the UN General Assembly on Wednesday, Hungarian President Katalin Novak lamented that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was “once again at war on the European continent”.
He said that stopping the war should be the UN’s “most urgent priority”, but seemed pessimistic about the relevant diplomatic activity to do the job.
Novak recently declared his admiration for England’s Queen Elizabeth II, quoting her twice. He said the queen’s life was “immersed in the service of peace” and said world leaders “owe it to the people and to her memory to make our decisions in the same spirit.”
Queen Elizabeth II prepares to receive Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev at Buckingham Palace on November 4, 2015 in London, England. (Chris Jackson – WPA Pool/Getty Images)
Novak noted that she herself was a wife, mother of three, and the first female president of a country that had suffered under “45 years of communist dictatorship,” so she felt natural sympathy for the queen’s refusal to fight for victory.
“We’ve learned war is bad, and leads nowhere,” he said.
“Russia’s war against Ukraine is a constant threat and security risk, not only for Ukrainians living in the war zones, but for all of us,” the Hungarian president said.
“Hungary strongly condemns Russia’s aggression in Ukraine, which has destroyed peace in Europe,” he declared.
Valentina Kondretieva, 75, walks to her damaged home on Saturday, Aug. 13, 2022, where she was injured in a Russian rocket attack last night in Kramtorsk, Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine. (David Goldman/AP)
Novak demanded a full investigation into alleged war crimes against civilians “in the strongest possible terms,” promising that “no crime committed can go unpunished.”
Novak’s brief remarks had a somber, quietly anxious undertone, as he described peace and justice as the highest goals, but set low expectations for the United Nations to meet them.
Novak noted that the United Nations is currently monitoring 27 conflicts worldwide and “there is not a single conflict described as ‘evolving’ at the moment.”
“Organizations established to avoid war and preserve peace are focusing on ideological motivations. That is not what is needed today,” he declared.
“Instead we must regain the ability to distinguish between the necessary and the irrelevant, the important and the unimportant, fact and fiction,” he said.
