Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has predicted that a new US administration under Donald Trump will cease providing support to Ukraine in its fight against Russia’s full-scale invasion.
His comments were a signal that Mr Trump’s recent election could drive a wedge among EU leaders on the question of the war.
Hungary’s leader is hosting the second of two days of summits on Friday in the capital, Budapest, just days after Mr 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.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky attended the summit (Denes Erdos/AP)
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 before Friday’s summit, Mr Orban, who is close to both Mr 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.
“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,” Mr Orban said. “The situation on the front is obvious, there’s been a military defeat. The Americans are going to pull out of this war.”
Armed conflict in Ukraine began in 2014, the same year Moscow illegally annexed the Crimean Peninsula, when pro-Russia separatist forces declared part of the country’s east to be independent, resulting in clashes with Ukrainian troops.
Thousands of people were killed in the fighting that continued in the east, including during Mr Trump’s first term, before Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022.
More recently, Russian forces have 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 Mr Trump’s presidential election victory.
The Republican has repeatedly taken issue with US 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 Zelensky objected to Mr 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 favourable to Mr Putin and involving the surrender of territory.
“If it is going to be very fast, it will be a loss for Ukraine,” Mr Zelenskyy said.
EU leaders have largely found workaround solutions to any obstruction to providing Mr Zelensky 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, the EU’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, downplayed concerns that a new US administration would 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,” Mr Borrell said.