“The situation on the battlefield is obvious, it is a military defeat” for Ukraine, he said on Friday before welcoming the heads of state and government of the 27, gathered in Budapest for a informal summit. Donald Trump “hates war” and therefore, “for us Europeans, the situation is evolving,” he added on Hungarian radio.
And for the Hungarian leader, who is pleading for a ceasefire, there is only one way to respond: “Let us adapt quickly and move from war to peace.” The American billionaire, who is preparing his return to the White House at the end of January, promised during his campaign to end the war in Ukraine in “24 hours”, without specifying how he intended to go about it.
“Unwavering support for Ukraine”
But other European leaders are not ready to give up their support, at a time when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky denounces any concession to Russia as “suicidal”. French President Emmanuel Macron and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk released a joint statement on Friday in which they reaffirmed their “determination to provide unwavering support to Ukraine and the Ukrainian people.”
They also “agreed to maintain and strengthen their support with the aim of defeating the Russian war of aggression”, according to this text. But for Viktor Orbán, the European front is cracking. “The number of those who are silent, when they were previously more talkative, is increasing, the number of those who are cautious is increasing, and the number of those who are asking the question whether perhaps we should adapt to the new situation is also increasing,” he assured.
