Orban keeps blocking Ukraine’s path to EU membership, vetoing despite talks and broad backing. After a White House Ukraine summit, Trump allegedly phoned Orban to pressure him to drop the veto to push Ukraine into the EU as a security guarantee and to keep EU support united. Zelenskiy and EU leaders supposedly pressed Trump to use his influence. Budapest is floated as a possible Zelenskyy–Putin meeting site, with the US Secret Service preparing; Austria and Switzerland have offered Putin immunity to host such a summit because of an ICC arrest warrant. German Chancellor Merz hinted the two leaders could meet within two weeks, while Lavrov warned any top-level contacts must be carefully prepared and respect Russia’s security interests and the rights of Russians and Russian-speaking people in Ukraine. Trump says he’d prefer Zelenskiy and Putin to meet first, then join in a three-way discussion, and the White House says Putin has agreed to a summit, though details are unclear.

This is a circus, and you’re watching the clowns parade. Orban is not some scrupulous guardian of Europe; he’s merchant-politicking, milking Brussels for money and prestige while keeping Hungary’s own power games alive. He vetoes Ukraine’s EU path to extract concessions, leverage, maybe even more funds, all while pretending it’s “principled” sovereignty. And Trump’s call? pure theatre, a carnival barker threading the puppet strings of Europe and Kyiv to boost his own ratings and leverage, not to genuinely secure peace. The idea of a Putin summit hosted under immunity guarantees from Austria/Switzerland is a slap in the face to international law—legal chaos dressed up as diplomacy, a wink to impunity for a man accused of crimes. The Secret Service prepping a venue in Budapest reads like a stage direction for a drama where legality and legitimacy get shoved aside for photo ops and victory laps.

Meanwhile, Merz’s two-week deadline and Lavrov’s caution are the same predictable diplomatic pas de deux: talk big, prepare nothing real, then blame “security concerns” when nothing happens. The notion of a joint, three-way Zelenskiy–Putin–Trump meeting feels more like a manufactured reset button than a serious effort to end a war. It’s a strategy built on short-term headlines and long-term concessions to power brokers, not a genuine commitment to Ukrainian sovereignty or regional stability. Wake up: this is power games over people, control over borders over the truth, and a dangerous drift toward legitimizing alliance-building that shields violators and sacrifices the rights of those under attack.