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Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orbán has demanded that the EU begin “direct discussions with Russia with a ceasefire” in the war against Ukraine.
Orban also said he opposed attempts to find any consensus on Ukraine among the 27 member states of the Block. His request was made on a letter to the EU Council President António Costa, who was sent on Saturday and was seen by the Financial Times.
The threat by the EU’s pro-Russian leader to block any deal comes after US President Donald Trump decided to open bilateral peace negotiations with the Kremlin, bypassing Kyiv and Europe, and Trump’s verbal attack on Ukraine leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the White House on Friday.
His letter comes after Brussels circulated project conclusions for a future summit of EU leaders involving additional military support for Ukraine and a rapid increase in European capitals protection spending. Zelenskyy is invited to attend the summit, which takes place on Thursday.
“It is clear that there are strategic differences in our approach to Ukraine that cannot be built from design or communication,” wrote to Orban Costa.
Orban’s Ambassador to the EU made similar points during a meeting of EU envoys in Brussels on Friday, according to people informed about the private meeting.
Top European leaders will meet in London on Sunday for a hurry -regulated summit organized by the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, in an effort to formulate proposals to collectively defend Ukraine and increase costs of protection, reducing the continent’s dependence on America.
Friday’s very public dispute between Trump and Zelenskyy underlined how far the US has moved the last weeks away from its previous position of sustainable support for Ukraine against Russia – and the distance now between Washington and its European allies.
Both of Orban’s letters and his ambassador’s comments quoted a UN Security Council resolution approved with the support of the US and Russia this week that did not refer to Moscow occupation in Ukraine and demanded a “rapid end of conflict”. European capitals abstained for voting.
“Resolution (KB) signals a new phase in the history of conflict and makes the entire previously agreed language from the European Council insignificant,” Orban wrote in the letter to Costa.
