By and , CNN
Jul 16, 2024
Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban has told European leaders that Donald Trump is “ready to act as a peace broker” between Russia and Ukraine if elected president, amid concerns across the continent that Trump would attempt to force Kyiv into ceding territory to Moscow.
Orban’s letter, addressed to European Council President Charles Michel and sent to all European Union leaders, was written in the wake of his controversial meetings with former President Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
“I can […] surely state that shortly after his election victory, he will not wait until his inauguration, [Trump] will be ready to act as a peace broker immediately. He has detailed and well-founded plans for this,” Orban wrote.
The authoritarian Hungarian premier has sought to cast himself as a peacemaker in the conflict, but his stance is at odds with most EU leaders, who have pledged unequivocal support for Ukraine as it attempts to repel Russia’s military effort.
In his letter to those leaders, Orban said that during the meetings there was a “general observation” that “the intensity of the military conflict” in Ukraine “will radically escalate in the near future.”
Orban also hinted at Trump’s plans to potentially pare back aid to Ukraine if elected, saying: “I am more than convinced that in the likely outcome of the victory of President Trump, the proportion of the financial burden between the US and the EU will significantly change to the EU’s disadvantage when it comes to the financial support of Ukraine.”
Trump, who has a propensity to make sweeping pronouncements on foreign policy, said during a CNN town hall last year that, “If I’m president, I will have that war settled in one day, 24 hours.”
In last month’s CNN debate with President Joe Biden, Trump said that Putin’s terms for an agreement – which would include Ukraine ceding the four territories currently occupied by Russia – are “not acceptable.”
But the former president, who is set to formally accept the Republican nomination at the party’s national convention later this week, has also criticized US military aid to Kyiv.
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