US President Donald Trump called Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán after talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European leaders on August 18 to discuss why he was blocking talks on Ukraine's accession to the European Union.
Bloomberg reported this, citing anonymous sources.
The call was the result of discussions between Trump and a group of European leaders who gathered at the White House to discuss ways to end russia's war against Ukraine. According to the sources, at one point they asked Trump to use his influence with Orbán to force him to drop his opposition to Ukraine's EU membership.
During the conversation with Trump, Hungary also expressed interest in holding the next round of talks between russian president vladimir putin and Zelenskyy.
It is noted that on Tuesday, Orbán published a message on Facebook in which he noted that he had heard requests for EU membership, but did not plan to change his position.
"Ukraine's membership in the European Union does not provide any security guarantees. Therefore, linking membership with security guarantees is unnecessary and dangerous," he said.
As the Ukrainian News agency earlier reported, Reuters, citing diplomatic sources, indicates that the United States and European partners have agreed to hold a trilateral summit with the participation of the leaders of Ukraine, the United States and russia - the meeting may take place in Europe, with Budapest being named as one of the possible locations.
At the same time, French President Emmanuel Macron said that the meeting between Volodymyr Zelenskyy and vladimir putin should take place in Europe, and advocated for it to be held in Geneva.
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