BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — A new U.S. administration under Donald Trump will cease providing support to Ukraine in its fight against Russia's full-scale invasion, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said ahead of a European Union summit on Friday, signaling that Trump's recent election could drive a wedge among EU leaders on the question of the war.
Orbán is hosting the second of two days of summits Friday in the Hungarian capital, Budapest, on the heels of Trump's election victory. The war in Ukraine will be high on the agenda for a gathering of the EU's 27 leaders, most of whom believe continuing to supply Ukraine with weapons and financial assistance are key elements for the continent's security.
The nationalist Hungarian leader has long sought to undermine EU support for Kyiv, and routinely blocked, delayed or watered down the bloc’s efforts to provide weapons and funding and to sanction Moscow for its invasion. He has sought to use the summits to make his case to other leaders that they should rethink their commitments to Ukraine.
In comments to state radio ahead of Friday's summit, Orbán, who is close to both Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, reiterated his long-held position that an immediate cease-fire should be declared, and suggested that Ukraine has already lost its fight.
“If Donald Trump had won in 2020 in the United States, these two nightmarish years wouldn’t have happened. There wouldn’t have been a war,” Orbán said. “The situation on the front is obvious, there’s been a military defeat. The Americans are going to pull out of this war.”
Russian forces have recently made modest gains in the east of Ukraine, although positions on the front lines have remained relatively stable for months. Still, as the duration of the war approaches 1,000 days, Ukraine’s forces are struggling to match Russia’s military, which is much bigger and better equipped.
Western support is crucial for Ukraine to sustain the costly war of attrition, and uncertainty over how long that aid will continue deepened this week with Trump's presidential election victory. The Republican has repeatedly taken issue with U.S. aid to Ukraine and declared he would bring a quick end to the conflict without detailing how.
At a gathering on Thursday of European leaders in Budapest, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy objected to Trump's claim that Russia’s war with Ukraine could be ended in a day, something he and his European backers fear would mean peace on terms favorable to Putin and involving the surrender of territory.
“If it is going to be very fast, it will be a loss for Ukraine,” Zelenskyy said.
EU leaders have largely found workaround solutions to any obstruction to providing Zelenskyy with assistance, and have been able to signal their commitment to supporting Ukraine in its fight, regardless of who occupies the White House.
Arriving at Friday's summit, Italy's hard-right Premier Giorgia Meloni, who is aligned with Orbán on many issues but breaks with him sharply on Russia's war, said: “As long is there is a war, Italy is on the side of Ukraine.”
European Council President Charles Michel said the EU must strengthen and support the war-ravaged country, “because if we do not support Ukraine, this is the wrong signal that we send to Putin, but also to some other authoritarian regimes across the world.”
But Orbán has cast himself as the exemplar of some in the EU who are skeptical of providing indefinite support to Ukraine, especially in light of uncertainty over whether U.S. assistance could evaporate under Trump.
“This is a new situation,” he said of Trump's reelection. “If this is what's going on across the pond, then this is going to affect us Europeans too. Europe cannot finance this war alone.”
