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Monday May 13, 2024

Trump won’t give money to Ukraine if elected, says Hungary’s Orban

Orban has refused to send weapons to Kyiv and kept up close economic ties with Moscow since Russian forces invaded Ukraine in 2022

By Reuters
March 12, 2024
Hungary PM  Viktor Orban with US former president Donald Trump at his Florida residence. — AFP/File
Hungary PM  Viktor Orban with US former president Donald Trump at his Florida residence. — AFP/File

BUDAPEST: Former US president Donald Trump will not give money to help Ukraine fight Russia if he wins the presidency again and that will hasten an end to the war, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said after meeting him. Nationalist premier Orban, who is backing his long-time ally’s bid to return to White House, met Trump in Florida on Friday.

“He will not give a penny into the Ukraine-Russia war and therefore the war will end,” Orban told state television late on Sunday. “As it is obvious that Ukraine on its own cannot stand on its feet.”

“If the Americans do not give money and weapons, and also the Europeans, then this war will be over. And if the Americans do not give money the Europeans are unable to finance this war on their own, and then the war will end.”

Orban has refused to send weapons to Kyiv and kept up close economic ties with Moscow since Russian forces invaded Ukraine in 2022. He last met Russian President Vladimir Putin in October in China despite European Union efforts to isolate Moscow.