Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban claims Donald Trump “will not give a penny to Ukraine”.
Viktor Orban flew to Florida to meet with his “good friend” Donald Trump on Friday last week.
Budapest:
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has claimed that former US President Donald Trump told him during a meeting that he would “not pay a dime” for the war in Ukraine – a claim Trump’s team did not comment on. .
Orban – the only EU leader to maintain ties with the Kremlin after Russia invaded Ukraine – flew to Florida on Friday to meet with his “good friend” Trump. He has often expressed hope for the return of Republicans to power.
Speaking about their visit on public broadcaster M1 late Sunday, Orban said the two men talked about the war in Ukraine during a Friday meeting at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence.
Orban said, “His position is very clear, with which it is difficult not to agree. He says the following: First of all, he will not give a penny to the Ukraine-Russia war.”
“That’s why the war will end, because it is clear that Ukraine cannot stand on its own feet… If the Americans do not give money, the Europeans alone will not be able to finance this war. And then the war is over, ” He added.
Trump’s team had no comment when contacted by AFP.
However, Trump praised Orban in an interview on Monday, calling him a “tough guy” and saying the Hungarian leader believed Russia would not have invaded if Trump were president.
“There are all these dead people in blown up cities because Ukraine is like a demolition site now, what they did to Ukraine – none of this should have happened,” Trump told CNBC.
– ‘Dictator’ –
US President Joe Biden reiterated his criticism of election rival Trump for meeting with Orbán.
Biden said at a campaign event in New Hampshire on Monday, “He was with Viktor Orbán, talking about how democracy is a problem, and saying how much he understood him and how much he agreed with him. Come. My Meaning, it’s not who we are.”
In his fiery State of the Union speech last week, Biden accused Trump of “bowing” to Russian President Vladimir Putin over Ukraine.
Biden’s campaign said on Monday that Orbán “rigged our political system to keep himself in power”.
“President Biden stands up against dictators and defends freedom,” campaign spokesman Ammar Moussa said in a statement. “Donald Trump consistently praises authoritarian leaders and dictators.”
Orban, meanwhile, angered fellow EU leaders by meeting Putin in September and has previously spoken out against Western sanctions on Moscow.
The Hungarian also told M1 that Trump had “quite detailed plans on how to end this war”, declining to elaborate.
Orbán regularly advocates an immediate ceasefire and peace talks, arguing that Trump is best qualified to find a way out of the conflict.
Trump had previously expressed admiration for Putin and said that if elected he would end the war in Ukraine “in 24 hours.”
Trump and his Republican allies have also opposed sending more aid to Ukraine, and Republicans in Congress are blocking Biden’s request for a multibillion-dollar package of critical military aid for Kiev.
The impeachment was the first of Trump’s two impeachments while in office for allegedly threatening to withhold aid to Ukraine unless President Volodymyr Zelensky dug up political dirt on Biden’s son Hunter’s Ukrainian business dealings.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)