US Vice President JD Vance criticised European leaders on Wednesday, accusing them of not doing enough to end the war in Ukraine.
“We are disappointed in many political leaders in Europe, because they do not seem particularly interested in resolving this specific conflict,” said Vance during a conference in Budapest for some 200 students from the Mathias Corvinus Collegium (MCC), a private school with close ties to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
“But we have received a lot of help from some of our friends,” he said, mentioning Italian Prime Minister Georgia Meloni and Orban.
Vance is in Hungary to support Orban, who faces the threat of losing just days before the parliamentary elections after 16 years in power. The US vice-president called Orban “the most useful” because he has helped the US “to truly understand the situation, to understand from the perspective of both the Ukrainians and the Russians what is needed to end the conflict.”
Vance emphasised that Ukraine has proven to be the most difficult war to resolve. “In some respects, we thought this would be the easiest, but it has turned out to be the hardest. We have been working on this for 14 months and we are continuing.”
Ukrainian leaders called on the United States to pressure Moscow to effect a ceasefire and end more than four years of war. They cited the ceasefire in Iran as demonstrating the success of “American steadfastness.”
Significant progress has already been made in the conflict, according to Vance. “We have really succeeded in letting them (the Ukrainians and the Russians) express their positions, and over time their positions have moved closer and closer together. Of course, we have not yet taken the final step of the necessary progress, but I am quite optimistic because the war essentially makes no sense anymore,” he said.
Vance called on both parties “not to quarrel over a few square kilometres of territory.” The US vice-president has been visiting Hungary since Tuesday.
