European Union leaders—minus Hungary—have issued a joint statement urging U.S. president Donald Trump to defend Ukraine’s interests and safeguard European security in his talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska.
The declaration stressed that any peace deal must protect Ukraine’s sovereignty and Europe’s strategic interests, but no EU leader nor Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has been invited to the summit.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán refused to sign, with Trump later praising him as “very smart” and recounting Orbán’s view that Russia is a formidable power unlikely to be defeated on the battlefield.
