Trump said Wednesday he’d had a “lengthy and highly productive phone call” with Putin that morning, confirming the two leaders had agreed to work together on a diplomatic resolution to the war in Ukraine.
Following Trump’s call with Putin, the so-called Weimar+ grouping — the EU, France, Germany, Poland, Italy, Spain and the U.K. — published a joint statement in support of Ukraine’s independence and territorial integrity. “In any negotiation, Europe must have a central role,” Kallas wrote in a post regarding the statement.
But Hungary’s illiberal Prime Minister Viktor Orbán mocked the statement on Thursday, describing it as “sad” and “worthless,” and arguing that seats at the negotiating table must be earned “through strength, good leadership and smart diplomacy.”