Trump and Putin’s Alaska summit aims to test the waters for a Ukraine ceasefire, with Russia pressing its advantage after fresh territorial gains. The US holds secondary tariff threats over Moscow, while the EU and Kyiv fight to keep their voice in any deal.
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said Hungary could cause Ukraine’s collapse within a day by cutting energy supplies but has no intention of doing so. He declared ‘Ukraine has lost the war, Russia has won,’ adding that only Western aid is delaying the inevitable.
‘Bismarck’s campaign for a “good treaty” with Russia reflected the notion that antagonizing the Russians could be as disastrous as waking a bear from hibernation—an apt metaphor for what the U.S.–NATO expansionist approach eventually did…Bismarck emphasized the urgency of not only respecting Russia’s interests but also recognizing it as a crucial player on the global political stage…’
European leaders’ obsession with the Munich analogy ahead of the Trump–Putin summit is turning history into a political crutch. Leaders warn of appeasement, yet ignore the radically different context of today’s war, risking self-imposed irrelevance in peace talks and handing strategic advantage to Washington and Moscow.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán vetoed an EU joint statement on the upcoming Trump–Putin summit in Alaska, breaking with the bloc’s 26 other members. While they welcomed Trump’s peace efforts, Orbán argued the EU should not set conditions for talks it was not invited to, urging instead an EU–Russia summit to ensure Europe’s voice in the process.
During an 11 August press conference at the White House, Donald Trump said he had sought advice from Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán on whether Ukraine can defeat Russia, calling the insight ‘very interesting’. Trump is set to meet Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday to discuss a potential peace framework for the war in Ukraine.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has called on France and Germany to take a leading role in engaging Russia ahead of the Trump–Putin meeting in Alaska on 15 August. Orbán stressed that Paris and Berlin, as key EU powers, must initiate an EU–Russian summit to ensure Europe is not sidelined in critical negotiations.
Rezső Erdélyi, analyst for the Hungarian Nézőpont Institute, has stated during his appearance on Hungarian public radio that the proposed meeting between US President Donald Trump and President Vladimir Putin of Russia is a great sign of progress in peace negotiations, and that ‘the US President has achieved more in ending the Russo–Ukrainian war than the European Union has done in many years.’
As the deadline for sweeping sanctions on Russian oil buyers looms, President Trump is preparing to meet Vladimir Putin face-to-face. The summit is widely viewed as a final diplomatic window to prevent further escalation and avert a global economic shock. For Trump, the meeting may also serve as a moment of redemption—an opportunity to rewrite the legacy of the ill-fated Helsinki Summit in 2018.
During the opening panel of MCC Feszt 2025 on Thursday, Balázs Orbán declared that the European Commission had betrayed European citizens by accepting the humiliating terms of the US–EU trade deal and that Ursula von der Leyen should resign. Joined by Patrick Deneen and James Orr, the panellists explored the prospects of a world beyond liberalism.