The winner of the US presidential election, Donald Trump, had several telephone conversations with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban after the November 5 vote. This was reported by sources of the Hungarian service of Radio Liberty.
Hungarian government sources reported that Trump was interested in Orbán’s opinion on ending the war in Ukraine.
Orban, who maintains friendly ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Trump, is critical of EU aid to Ukraine and obstructs the blocʼs sanctions regime against Moscow.
In July, after traveling to Kyiv with a mysterious cease-fire proposal for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Orban traveled to Moscow for a meeting with Putin, which was criticized by some EU leaders. He then traveled to China and finally to the United States to meet with Trump, who was on the campaign trail at the time.
It is reported that Orbán is preparing for new trips with a peacekeeping mission in December. Details of the potential mission are unclear, but sources told RFE/RL’s Hungarian service that it could include delivering Trump’s messages to Zelensky, Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Trump has repeatedly claimed that once elected president, he will be able to stop the war in Ukraine “within 24 hours.” Both Moscow and Kyiv commented on these words with skepticism. The Washington Post previously wrote about the details of Trump’s alleged peace plan: it is claimed that he wants to put pressure on both Moscow and Kyiv in order to force them to conclude peace at the cost of Ukraine giving up part of its territories, and Russia – from its other demands. Trump has not officially confirmed that this is the plan.
Zelensky said that on the evening of November 6, he had a “great conversation” with Trump. Also on November 7 Ukrainian, the president stated that he did not know the details of Donald Trump’s plan to quickly end the war between Ukraine and Russia. He did not discuss this with the newly elected president of the United States.