EU politicians consider it an insult and"horrific" that US President Donald Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin have scheduled a meeting in the Hungarian capital, Budapest.
As Ukrinform reports, this is reported by El Pais.
Trump's upcoming meeting with Putin in Budapest puts the heads of EU and NATO institutions"in an awkward and unpleasant position," as Putin and Trump intend to discuss the Russian-Ukrainian war in an EU country, but without the participation of the bloc itself.
"The location was chosen carefully because it could benefit Russia by deepening divisions in the EU over Moscow's actions. It could also do a big favor for Viktor Orban, who faces elections next year," an unnamed European diplomat told the publication.
In public, EU politicians have said that a meeting between Trump and Putin would be beneficial if it helped end Russia's invasion of Ukraine. But in private, several sources have called it a"political nightmare" for the EU.
As Ukrinform reported, Trump, on the eve of his meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, had a phone conversation with Putin, after which he announced that he would meet with the Kremlin leader in Budapest to discuss the possibility of ending this inglorious war between Russia and Ukraine.