Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has vetoed a European Union joint statement on the upcoming summit in Alaska between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
As a result, the statement was issued in the usual ‘27 minus 1’ format—as with every joint conclusion on Ukraine since March 2025, when Orbán blocked a Council statement backing Kyiv’s fast-track EU accession. Released on Tuesday morning, it declared that the 26 member states ‘welcome the efforts of President Trump towards ending Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine’ and stressed that ‘the path to peace in Ukraine cannot be decided without Ukraine.’ They concluded by underlining that ‘international borders must not be changed by force.’
Since details of the Trump–Putin summit began to emerge last week, it has become increasingly clear that Europe has little to no influence over a potential peace framework. Russian ceasefire conditions reportedly include a unilateral Ukrainian withdrawal from Donetsk and Luhansk—an idea rejected outright by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who said: ‘Kyiv won’t give up its land to occupiers.’ In contrast, Trump has signalled there could be territorial swaps on both sides, though on Monday he also said: ‘We’re going to try and get some of that territory back for Ukraine.’
It remains uncertain whether Zelenskyy will attend the Alaska talks—most likely not—but European allies’ main aim is to have Trump represent both Ukraine’s and Europe’s interests in the negotiations. Over the weekend, EU leadership and the Coalition of Willing presented a counterproposal to US Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, including potential NATO membership for Ukraine as a security guarantee and a ‘ceasefire first, territorial talks later’ framework. While Vance called their concerns ‘serious’, Washington did not endorse the counterproposal.
In a post on X, Orbán explained his veto. ‘The statement attempts to set conditions for a meeting to which leaders of the EU were not invited,’ he wrote. ‘The fact that the EU was left on the sidelines is sad enough as it is. The only thing that could make things worse is if we started providing instructions from the bench.’ He added that the ‘only sensible action for EU leaders is to initiate an EU–Russia summit, based on the example of the US–Russia meeting.’ Orbán has already urged France and Germany to relaunch dialogue between Europe and Russia both last week and earlier this week.
Ironically, Orbán is one of the few EU leaders who may have some influence over events in Alaska. Trump recently said he had sought Orbán’s advice on whether Ukraine could defeat Russia militarily. According to Trump, Orbán replied that Russia is a ‘strong country that has gained its territories and everything it has through war.’ ‘War is what it does best,’ Trump continued, quoting Orbán. The Hungarian leader then compared China’s trade power to Russia’s military experience: ‘China wins through trade, and Russia wins through war.’ Trump described Orbán’s remarks as ‘a very interesting insight’.
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