As European leaders prepare for a high-stakes summit in London on Sunday, populist Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and his Slovak counterpart Robert Fico are openly challenging the EU’s united front on Ukraine, pushing positions that echo the Kremlin’s stance.
In a letter to European Council President António Costa dated Saturday, Orbán called for the EU to engage in direct cease-fire negotiations with Russia, mirroring U.S. efforts under Donald Trump. He warned that attempting to adopt written conclusions on Ukraine at the London summit would showcase European disunity.
Slovakia, meanwhile, is taking an even harder line. In a statement responding to Friday’s contentious Trump meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House, Slovak Prime Minister Fico said his country would refuse financial or military support to Kyiv and dismissed the West’s “peace through strength” approach as unrealistic.
