It seems Trump wants to end the war but can’t go the final mile. In November he issued his 28 point peace plan. He announced that Zelensky had a few days to agree or the US would pull the plug. Then – under pressure from the Europeans, and no doubt from the neo-cons and liberal internationalists circling around him in Washington, he back-tracked. And so, we have more “negotiations” – which are very unlikely to go anywhere since the 28 point plan was already the minimum Russia could accept.
Victor Orban of Hungary was reported as being prepared to block the EU loan which will keep Kiev afloat for another year, (assuming they don’t collapse militarily). I don’t know if he ever actually said that. But, at any event, this is feeble:
I think it’s a bad decision. All the others, except the Czechs and Slovaks, think that it was a good decision. I think it was an extremely bad decision, which brings Europe closer to the war.
It looks like a loan, but of course, the Ukrainians will never be able to pay it back, so it’s basically lost money, and those who are behind that loan will take the responsibility and the financial consequences of that.
[The] three countries decided not to be part of it, that’s an opt out for Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary. So we are innocent [1]
Well; unfortunately, not ‘innocent’ – since you failed to veto the plan when you had the chance. Orban, basically, had it within his power to close down the war. (Or, at least, throw a major, major, spanner in the works – since the EU would have have to have used their questionable mechanism [2] to suspend Hungary and possibly Czechoslovakia and Slovakia, and then have a re-vote- which would have made them look very bad).
They perform against the war, but, when the crunch comes, they can’t break free of the machines in which they live. That said; maybe, behind the scenes, Hungary was threatened with exactly this, (suspension), and fearing the economic pain that would ensure from that, (and ensuing political unpopularity), Orban was forced into compliance?
Notes
- https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2025/dec/19/ukraine-war-live-zelenskyy-european-union-agreement-90bn-loan-deal-kyiv?filterKeyEvents=false&page=with%3Ablock-69450d1d8f089a379a1e1679#block-69450d1d8f089a379a1e1679
- https://www.delorscentre.eu/en/publications/detail/publication/a-matter-of-solidarity
