Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said Wednesday he believes Ukraine has already lost the war with Russia, as he looked ahead to a planned meeting between former U.S. president Donald Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
“The Ukrainians have lost this war, Russia has won the war,” Orbán told far-right news site Mandiner, adding that the conflict is not “open-ended” as some suggest. A frequent critic of EU sanctions on Moscow, Orbán argued Kyiv would have capitulated long ago without Western military and financial support. On Tuesday, Hungary refused to join 26 EU partners in backing a statement that welcomed Trump’s mediation efforts and demanded Ukraine’s territorial integrity be preserved.
The Trump–Putin meeting, set for Friday in Anchorage, Alaska, has raised fears in Kyiv and across Europe that a deal could pressure Ukraine into territorial concessions—something President Volodymyr Zelensky has vowed to reject. Orbán said on Facebook it was already “sad” the EU had been sidelined from the talks, adding, “The only thing worse will be if we were giving instructions from the sidelines.”
