LUXEMBOURG — Russian leader Vladimir Putin should be blocked from taking part in high-stakes negotiations designed to freeze the war in Ukraine, one of Europe’s top diplomats warned after U.S. President Donald Trump touted Hungary as a host country.
Ahead of a meeting of EU member countries in Luxembourg on Monday, Lithuanian Foreign Minister Kęstutis Budrys blasted plans for the talks, which would mark Putin’s first trip to an EU country since he launched the full-scale invasion in February 2022. “I cannot imagine him crossing our airspace,” Budrys said.
“There is no place for war criminals in Europe,” he said. “The only place for Putin in Europe, that’s in The Hague, in front of the tribunal, not in any of our capitals.”
Asked whether the refusal to support the potential summit, brokered by the White House, would risk angering Trump, Budrys said only that “there are other ways, you know, if he wants to get there, but I would look for alternatives as well.”
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has carefully cultivated ties with both Putin and Trump, and has enthusiastically endorsed plans for his country to host the summit.
Meanwhile, the EU’s foreign affairs chief Kaja Kallas said plans for Putin — who is wanted by the International Criminal Court on war crimes charges — to come to Budapest are “not nice to see.”
However, she went on, “America has a lot of strength to pressure Russia to come to the negotiation table; if they use that, [then] of course, this is good.”
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot added the talks could make sense, but only if they lead to an “immediate ceasefire.”
The European Commission has hinted that airspace restrictions preventing Russian diplomats from traveling to much of the continent could be relaxed to allow Putin to take part in the talks.
POLITICO reported Monday that Trump had told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy that he will “try to end this [war] on the current line” of military contact, rather than push for Kyiv to give up territory in the Donbas that Moscow’s forces have been unable to conquer on the battlefield.
The post Putin’s looming visit riles EU: Budapest? Try The Hague instead. appeared first on Politico.
