Hungary's Orbán says Ukraine would not exist without EU support
Photo: Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán (facebook.com)
Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said external forces were needed to achieve peace in Ukraine because, in his view, neither side was moving toward it on its own, Telex reports.
Speaking at an anti-war rally in Győr, Orbán said the EU had leverage to pressure Kyiv. He claimed Ukraine would not exist without EU support, which, he added, allowed Brussels to motivate Kyiv toward peace.
He also said leading Western countries had not found tools that could force Russia to agree to a settlement, adding that Moscow sought to occupy the entire country.
Orbán said time was on Russia's side and argued that peace should have been reached before Russian forces moved to occupy all of Ukraine.
Disrupted the Budapest summit and the resumption of POW swaps
After returning to the White House, US President Donald Trump made several attempts to secure a peace deal in Ukraine.
Since May, Kyiv and Moscow have resumed peace talks and held three rounds in Istanbul. The meetings produced no breakthrough aside from exchanges of prisoners and the return of soldiers' bodies.
Toward the end of the summer, Trump met with Putin in Alaska, but the summit yielded no results. In mid-October, the two leaders held another call, after which Trump announced plans for a follow-up meeting with Putin in Budapest.
The summit was expected within weeks, but it collapsed after Russia refused to change its conditions for ending the war.
Despite early signs that the meeting might fall through, Orbán and Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto continued to say the summit remained on track. When it ultimately collapsed, Orbán told Trump during a visit that the meeting would still take place later.
As a result, peace in Ukraine remained out of reach. On November 12, Ukraine's Deputy Foreign Minister Sergiy Kyslytsya said this year's negotiations ended with almost no progress, so talks were now on hold.
At the same time, National Security and Defense Council Secretary Rustem Umerov said Ukraine and Russia would resume prisoner exchanges, and technical consultations would begin soon.
