Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov spoke by phone with his Turkish and Hungarian counterparts on Saturday following a high-profile summit in Alaska between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin that ended without a peace deal for Ukraine, Reuters reported.
The Russian foreign ministry said Lavrov and Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan held a call at Turkey’s initiative during which they exchanged views on the results of the Trump-Putin meeting on August 15 at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage. Lavrov later spoke with Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto about the same summit.
Trump, who hosted Putin in an effort to end the war that began with Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, publicly urged Kyiv to reach an agreement with Moscow and said, “Russia is a very big power, and they’re not.” His remarks drew concern in Europe, where leaders stressed that only Ukraine can decide on matters concerning its territory.
Turkey has sought to balance its NATO membership with close ties to both Russia and Ukraine throughout the conflict, positioning itself as a potential mediator while maintaining defense cooperation with the West and energy links with Moscow. Ankara previously helped broker the now-collapsed Black Sea grain deal.
Hungary, meanwhile, has kept unusually close relations with Moscow, opposing EU sanctions and maintaining energy cooperation, a stance that has often put it at odds with other European Union members. Following the Alaska talks, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said “the world is a safer place than it was yesterday,” while Szijjarto wrote on Facebook that Budapest hopes for “a durable resolution to the conflict” to restore peace and security in Central Europe.
Despite such statements, European leaders reiterated that Ukraine alone must decide its future, underscoring the divisions within the Western alliance over how to handle Russia’s war.