Trump won’t send a single penny to Kyiv, says Orban

Hungarian PM says former president told him he would pull the plug on military assistance, effectively ending the war with Russia.

Donald Trump welcomes Viktor Orban to his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida. Picture: AFP

Donald Trump has promised he will cut off all American military assistance to Ukraine if he returns to the White House, according to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

Mr Trump, who is all but certain to secure the Republican Party presidential nomination, has in the past pledged to end the war in Ukraine “within 24 hours” if he wins November’s election. Mr Orban underscored that sentiment after meeting him at his Mar-a-Lago mansion in Florida.

“He will not give a single penny for the Russian-Ukrainian war. That’s why the war will end, because it’s obvious that Ukraine cannot stand on its own two feet,” he told Hungarian state television at the weekend.

“If the Americans don’t give (Ukraine) any money or weapons, then the Europeans won’t be able to fund this war on their own. And then the war will end.”

The right-wing nationalist described Mr Trump as “a man of peace”, saying the world would be “a better place” if he returned to power.

Mr Orban did not meet President Joe Biden during his US trip.

Washington has been Ukraine’s most important supporter since Russia invaded in 2022, but a further $US60bn ($90.7bn) military aid package has been stalled for months in congress by Republicans loyal to Mr Trump. The delay has led to acute ammunition shortages for the Ukrainian military, allowing Russia to make its biggest battlefield advances for months.

Mr Orban also said Mr Trump had a “pretty detailed plan” to bring a halt to the biggest conflict in Europe since 1945, but did not elaborate. It was unclear if the purported plan contained other elements beyond halting US military assistance. Neither Mr Trump nor Russian President Vladimir Putin have commented on Mr Orban’s remarks.

Mr Trump has said previously that he would be able to persuade President Volodymyr Zelensky and Putin to agree to “a fair deal for everybody”.

However, Mr Zelensky has said there can be no negotiations while Putin remains in power, and Ukraine will not give up land for peace. He invited Mr Trump to visit the frontlines with him to see the situation for himself.

Mr Trump did not respond.

Hungary remains Russia’s biggest supporter in the EU and has sought to block sanctions against it over the invasion of Ukraine.

Some Ukrainian officials have sought to downplay fears that Mr Trump’s return to the White House would mean the end of military support. In 2017, Mr Trump approved the sale of anti-tank Javelin missiles to Ukraine as it battled Kremlin-backed forces in the Donbas region. “Trump was the first US president to provide lethal weapons to our country. This is an inconvenient thing to talk about in the US now,” Oleksiy Danilov, head of Ukraine’s national security council, told The Times in December.

Mr Orban’s comments come after the Pope caused anger in Ukraine and Western countries by saying Kyiv should “have the courage to raise the white flag and negotiate” with Moscow.

The Kremlin said on Monday night it had consistently called for peace talks – but it has also stated that it would not withdraw its troops unless Ukraine surrendered four regions in the east and the south of the country that Russia claims as its own.

Russian troops have killed, raped and tortured Ukrainian ­civilians in areas that they have occupied, while Putin and senior Russian officials have said the country has no right to exist as a sovereign state.

Most Ukrainians remain opposed to giving up territory, but the number of those who say that it would be acceptable to surrender some land for peace has risen to 19 per cent from 10 per cent at the start of the war, according to the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology.

The number of Ukrainians who think the West wants Kyiv to make concessions to Moscow has almost tripled – to 44 per cent – in the past 18 months, according to another poll by the institute.

The end of US military assistance for Ukraine would force ­European countries to increase their support or risk seeing a Russian victory. Some Western officials have warned that Russia might even go on to attack a NATO member state if it wins the war in Ukraine.

Mr Trump caused alarm last month when he said he would “encourage” Russia to target NATO countries that had failed to spend the agreed 2 per cent of their budgets on defence.

President Emmanuel Macron said last week that France might send troops to Ukraine if Russia threatened to seize the capital, Kyiv, or Odesa, Ukraine’s Black Sea port. Other NATO members have ruled out deploying forces. Putin has said the presence of Western troops in Ukraine could trigger a nuclear war.

THE TIMES