President Trump has called Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban to win his support for Ukraine’s membership in the European Union (EU), following discussions with European leaders at the White House. The top European officials asked if the president could use his sway over the Hungarian prime minister to force the nationalist leader to do away with his opposition to Ukraine’s joining the EU, a goal Kyiv has long sought. Hungary expressed willingness to host the next summit featuring both Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Trump has backed the idea of a Putin-Zelensky summit, after which a trilateral meeting would take place between the two leaders and the U.S. president. The location and timing for the meeting are unclear.
Orban, who has a warm relationship with Putin, has tried to block or delay the EU’s attempts to send weapons to Ukraine in the past and objected to sanctions against the Kremlin. Neither the White House nor Orban’s office has commented on the call. The gathering of European officials and Zelensky in Washington came just days after Trump, along with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and special envoy Steve Witkoff, met with Putin, alongside two other Russian officials, on Friday in Alaska. Rubio now leads the recently formed joint commission that will work on drafting a security guarantees proposal for Ukraine. Trump has pushed to end the Russia-Ukraine war and signaled openness to providing air support for Ukraine as part of security guarantees.
