Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on 12 August that “Russia has won the war in Ukraine,” arguing that Kyiv’s Western backers will eventually have to acknowledge Moscow’s victory and enter negotiations. He made the remarks in an interview with the ‘Patriot’ YouTube channel, three days before U.S. President Donald Trump is due to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki on 15 August. Orban was the only European Union leader to withhold support for a joint statement issued the same day by 26 member states affirming that Ukraine should be free to decide its own future. The nationalist premier, in power since 2010, has been repeatedly criticised inside the bloc for maintaining close ties with the Kremlin, refusing to send weapons to Ukraine and blocking progress toward Ukraine’s EU membership bid. The Hungarian leader said Europe had missed its chance to negotiate with Putin under former U.S. President Joe Biden and now risks being left out of any settlement. “If you are not at the negotiating table, you are on the menu,” he said, adding that EU institutions look “ridiculous and pathetic” when excluded from major security talks. Hungary obtains most of its energy from Russia and is contending with stubborn inflation, factors that have reinforced Orban’s resistance to deeper confrontation with Moscow.