BUDAPEST: Donald Trump’s biggest European fan, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, predicted on Friday that a new US administration under Trump will cease providing support to Ukraine in its fight against Russia’s full-scale invasion.
Orbán’s comments were a signal that Trump’s recent election could drive a wedge among European Union leaders on the question of the war.
Hungary’s leader hosted the second of two days of summits on Friday in the capital, Budapest, just days after Trump’s election victory. The war in Ukraine was high on the agenda for the gathering of the EU’s 27 leaders, most of whom believe continuing to supply Kyiv 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 Ukraine, 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 the war-ravaged country.
In comments to state radio before Friday’s summit, Orbán, who is considered close to both Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, reiterated his long-held position that an immediate ceasefire should be declared, and suggested that Ukraine has already lost its fight.
“The situation on the front is obvious, there’s been a military defeat. The Americans are going to pull out of this war,” Orbán said.
The Hungarian leader 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 US assistance could evaporate under Trump.
He said Friday that Trump’s reelection had created a “new situation” for Europe, and that the continent “cannot finance this war alone.”
But numerous EU leaders made a point to downplay the risk of a shift in US policies drifting across the Atlantic into European capitals. Arriving at the summit, the EU’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, said a new US administration wouldn’t lead Europe to change course.
“We cannot outsource our capacity of action. Whatever happens in the US, we have our interests, we have our values,” Borrell said.
Italy’s hard-right leader, 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.”
Western support is crucial for Kyiv to sustain the costly war of attrition, but Trump’s repeated statements criticizing US aid, and his claims that he could bring the conflict to a rapid end, have led to uncertainty over how long the help will continue.
At a gathering on Thursday of European leaders in Budapest, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky 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,” Zelensky said.
Despite Orbán’s attempts to throttle aid packages, EU leaders have largely found workaround solutions to any obstruction to providing Zelensky with assistance, and have been able to signal their commitment to supporting Ukraine in its fight, regardless of who occupies the White House.
Closing out the summit on Friday, European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen said the EU would “discuss with our American friends also the fact that Russia is not only a threat to Europe, but a threat to the global security as a whole” in an effort to dissuade a new Trump administration from abandoning aid to Ukraine.
“We see that technology from China and Iran is used by Russia on the battlefield,” she continued. “It shows that the security of the Indo-Pacific and Europe are interconnected, and so are the European and the United States interests in this course.”