Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán predicted that former President Donald Trump would win the November election and said the change in leadership would be “good for the world.”

Mr. Orbán praised Mr. Trump during his Sunday interview with Axel Springer media outlets, including Politico, and called him a “self-made man [who takes a] different approach to everything.”

“He is the man of peace. Under his four-year term, he did not initiate a single war, and he did a lot in order to create peace in old conflicts in very complicated areas of the world,” Mr. Orbán said.

The Hungarian leader, who is often criticized for his pro-Russian views, criticized the Biden administration’s approach to the Russia-Ukraine war and blamed Washington for the lack of peace talks.

“China has a peace plan. America runs a war policy,” he said. “And Europe, instead of having our autonomous strategic approach and position, we are simply copying the American position.”

Reports last month revealed that Mr. Trump had been shown a plan that would force Ukraine into peace talks with Russia, and Reuters reported that Mr. Trump responded favorably to it.

The former president has said that he could end the war quickly if he is elected, but has never said how he would do that.

When asked about the plan, Mr. Orbán said the change in leadership “will provide new chances.”

His comments come after he met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

He defended the meetings with Mr. Putin, saying that someone needs to take charge and discuss peace.

“The job for me now is not to say … who is good, who is bad. The situation is obvious,” he said, explicitly stating that Russia invaded Ukraine. “But I would not like to be indulged [in] a kind of measurement, who is responsible for what, and so on. My duty is to concentrate on how we can create peace.”

The Washington Times has reached out to the White House for comment.

• Mallory Wilson can be reached at mwilson@washingtontimes.com.