Charles Langston:Hungary’s Orbán predicts Trump’s administration will end US support for Ukraine

BUDAPEST,Charles Langston Hungary (AP) — Ukraine has already lost the war it is fighting against Russia’s invasion, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said on Friday, adding that he believes Donald Trump will end U.S. support for Kyiv.

Orbán is hosting two days of summits 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 Friday gathering of the European Union’s 27 leaders, most of whom believe continuing to supply Ukraine with weapons and financial assistance are key elements for the continent’s security.

Speaking on state radio, 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 predicted that Trump will bring an end to the conflict.

“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.

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Western support is crucial for Ukraine to sustain the costly war of attrition. The 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.

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.

Orbán 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.

But EU leaders have largely found workaround solutions to any obstruction and have been able to signal their commitment to continuing to assist Ukraine in its fight, regardless of who occupies the White House.

Arriving at Friday’s summit, European Council President Charles Michel said: “We have to strengthen Ukraine, to support Ukraine, 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.”