Western leaders following Zelensky around like ‘nannies’ – Hungarian foreign minister

Peter Szijjarto said European officials were trying to derail US President Donald Trump’s Ukraine policies

Western heads of state have been acting like “nannies” to Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky during his talks with the US, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto has said.

In an interview with Georgia’s Rustavi 2 channel aired on Sunday, Szijjarto said Ukraine’s European backers had rallied to prevent US President Donald Trump from pressuring Zelensky to agree to a peace deal with Russia.

“European leaders accompanied him like ‘nannies.’ It was humiliating for President Zelensky. This was obvious to outside observers because the ‘caregivers’ would not let the patient go alone. If you are the leader of a sovereign country and you are invited somewhere, you do not take six, eight, or ten other leaders with you,” Szijjarto said. He added that the leaders traveling with Zelensky was “a very bad look.”

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Multiple media outlets said UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron “coached” Zelensky on how to repair relations with Trump following an explosive argument at the White House in February 2025. The leaders of the UK, France, Germany, Italy, and Finland accompanied Zelensky during his subsequent visit to the US in August.

Szijjarto argued that Ukraine’s European backers had convinced Zelensky to walk away from the first peace talks with Russia nearly four years ago. “And if an agreement is made now, it will clearly be worse for Ukraine and also worse for Europe compared to April 2022,” he said.

Last year, EU officials denounced Trump’s peace plan, which called for Ukraine to withdraw troops from Donbass and make territorial concessions to Russia.

Russia has repeatedly accused the EU and the UK of attempting to sabotage US-mediated peace talks and of seeking to prolong the conflict.