Hungarian Prime Minister visited former President Donald Trump at his Florida Mar-a-Lago residence to discuss the war in Ukraine on Thursday night. Photo by Zoltan Zovacs/X
July 12 (UPI) — Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban visited former U.S. President Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago on Thursday, proclaiming afterward that he can bring an end to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Orban’s spokesman Zoltan Kovacs said the meeting with Trump is part of the prime minister’s peace efforts to end the war in Ukraine. Orban has endorsed Trump’s run for president and maintained close ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin while many others in Europe have stepped away from Moscow.
“It was an honor to visit President Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago today,” Orban said on X. “We discussed ways to make peace. The good news of the day: He’s going to solve it.”
On Truth Social, Trump thanked Orban and called for an end to the war, though both gave no details on how to achieve that.
“There must be peace and quickly,” Trump wrote on his social media site. “Too many people have died in a war that should have never started.”
Orban had previously visited Moscow and Beijing for discussions on the war in Ukraine, angering European Union officials.
Hungary took over the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union this month. Since then, Orban said he would use it to bring peace to Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has expressed doubt about Orban’s efforts and his closeness to Putin.
“With all due respect to all countries, big and small, we have to say that not all leaders can negotiate,” Zelensky said, according to Politico. “You need to have certain power and strength for this.”
The meeting came after a NATO summit in Washington where President Joe Biden said that Trump has “made it clear he has no commitment” to the military alliance which he hailed as a necessary safeguard for nations like Ukraine.
“For those who thought NATO’s time had passed, they got a rude awakening when Putin invaded Ukraine,” Biden said. “Some of the oldest and deepest fears in Europe roared back to life.”
