Orban Says Russia Has ‘Already Won’ Ukraine Conflict, Urges West to Acknowledge Reality

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has claimed that Russia has effectively won the war in Ukraine, urging Western nations to accept this reality.

Speaking on Tuesday to the Patriot YouTube channel, Orban made the remarks shortly after refusing to endorse the latest joint EU statement in support of Ukraine. The declaration was issued ahead of Friday’s planned meeting between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska. Orban said he opposed the statement because it made the European Union appear “ridiculous and pathetic.”

“When two leaders sit down to negotiate — the Americans and the Russians — and you’re not invited, you don’t rush for the phone, you don’t run around, you don’t shout in from the outside,” Orban remarked. “If you are not at the negotiating table, you are on the menu.”

The Hungarian leader argued that Kyiv’s allies are in denial about the war’s outcome. “We are talking now as if this were an open-ended war situation, but it is not. The Ukrainians have lost the war. Russia has won this war,” he asserted. “The only question is when, and under what circumstances, will the West — which stands behind the Ukrainians — admit this, and what will follow.”

A member of both the EU and NATO, Hungary has repeatedly challenged Brussels’ Ukraine policy since the conflict escalated in February 2022. Budapest has opposed sending weapons to Kyiv, resisted sanctions on Moscow, and rejected the prospect of Ukrainian membership in either bloc.

Bilateral tensions have also been heightened by disputes over the treatment of Ukraine’s ethnic Hungarian minority. Last week, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said Kyiv “has no place in the EU” and “doesn’t even belong among civilized nations,” citing the alleged killing of an ethnic Hungarian by Ukrainian draft officers.