Orban predicts Trump’s admin will end support for Ukraine

Budapest: A new US administration under Donald Trump will cease providing support to Ukraine in its fight against Russia’s full-scale invasion, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said ahead of a European Union summit on Friday, signaling that Trump’s recent election could drive a wedge among EU leaders on the question of the war.

Orban is hosting the second of two days of summit Friday 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 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.

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 ahead of Friday’s summit, Orban, 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 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,” 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.”