Russian President, Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelenskyy
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has declared that Ukraine has already lost its war against Russia, just days before a high-stakes meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
In an interview with the conservative outlet Mandiner.hu, Orbán stated, “Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has lost this war,” emphasizing his belief that “Russia has won the war.”
Orbán criticized the notion of the conflict having an open-ended outcome, asserting, “We speak as if this war has an uncertain conclusion, but that is not true.”
He argued that Ukraine’s resistance persists only due to ongoing Western support, noting, “Without weapons and financial aid from the West, this war would have ended long ago.”
The Hungarian leader, known for blocking EU sanctions against Russia, also defended Budapest’s refusal to endorse a joint EU statement supporting Trump’s efforts to resolve the conflict. The statement, signed by 26 EU nations, called for respecting Ukraine’s territorial integrity and declared that “international borders must not be altered through force.”
Orbán dismissed the statement, saying it tried to impose conditions on talks to which EU leaders were not invited.
Commenting on the upcoming Trump-Putin meeting in Anchorage, Alaska, Orbán expressed concern about Europe’s marginalization.
In a Facebook post, he wrote, “It’s bad enough that the EU is sidelined. The only thing worse would be if we were issuing demands from the sidelines.”
The planned talks have raised alarms in Kyiv and across Europe, with fears that the two leaders might negotiate a deal pressuring Ukraine into territorial concessions—a possibility Zelensky has firmly rejected.
