Russia suffers 'significant losses', Orban says Ukraine 'can't win', Belarus calls for peace talks

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has insisted Ukraine cannot defeat Russia, and that the EU should therefore prepare a plan B for dealing with the conflict.

In an interview with Hungarian state radio, the nationalist leader said the EU's strategy towards the Ukraine war had "failed".

“Today everyone knows, but does not dare to say it out loud, that this strategy has failed. Obviously, this won't work. The Ukrainians will not win on the battlefield,” he said, declaring that there is no reason to spend Hungarian taxpayers’ money on helping Ukraine.

Aid from the West is widely seen as crucial to Ukraine's ability to defend itself against the Russian invasion, though some politicians in Europe and the US are growing weary of providing more support. 

Hungary's Oxford-educated leader is considered an ally of Putin. He has blocked the release of EU funds to Ukraine since Kyiv put the Hungarian OTP Bank on its list of international sponsors of war.

Earlier today, Lithuania's President Gitanas Nausėda said Orban needed to stop "flirting" with Russia, pointing to his meeting with Putin in mid-October. 

“It’s really more than strange to see that we start to flirt with the regime which is committing [...] very cruel atrocities in the territory of Ukraine," he said in Brussels. 

"It sends a very wrong message to everybody, first to the international community and also to Ukraine.”

US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said on Thursday Moscow has suffered "significant losses" in its new offensive in Ukraine.

Kirby added that Russia's army had lost at least 125 armoured vehicles around the Ukrainian town of Avdiivka in the eastern Donetsk region, and more than a battalion's worth of equipment.

"It is unsurprising that Russian