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Louise Thomas
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Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban has urged Ukraine “to consider a quick ceasefire” during his first visit to the war-torn country since Vladimir Putin ordered the full-scale invasion.
After crunch talks with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv, during which the two countries pledged to strengthen relations, Mr Orban urged Ukraine to halt fighting and enter negotiations with Russia, adding that the war was having a “very intense effect on the security of Europe”.
“We highly appreciate all the initiatives of president Zelensky for the sake of achieving peace,” he said. “I told [the] president that these initiatives take a long time. It is precisely because of the rules of international diplomacy that they are very complicated.
“I asked the president to think about whether it is possible to go a little differently: to stop the fire and then continue the negotiations. A ceasefire could speed up the pace of these negotiations.”
Mr Zelensky did not say how he had responded to this prompt but Kyiv maintains that no ceasefire can happen until Russia withdraws its troops from Ukraine – a request that Moscow says will never happen.
Mr Orban’s trip marks Hungary’s first diplomatic visit after assuming the rotating presidency of the European Union on Monday.
The presidency has caused concern among bloc members given Mr Orban’s continued reluctance to support Ukraine. It makes Budapest the co-legislator of the bloc’s legislature alongside the European Parliament, a considerable power.
But while a Hungarian nudge towards the negotiating table may be viewed by some as Mr Orban yet again shying away from standing up to Mr Putin, Ukrainian officials said the visit was productive.
“Much has been done for this visit,” wrote Andriy Yermak, Mr Zelensky’s chief adviser, on X/Twitter. “An important conversation about the future of Europe, security, international law, and the formula of peace.”
The last time Mr Orban met with Mr Zelensky, on 27 June, the pair were filmed in a heated exchange on the sidelines of a European leaders’ summit in Brussels. Mr Zelensky then urged all EU leaders to step up their military support for Ukraine.
The Hungarian premier has routinely opposed the bloc’s support for Kyiv, which requires unanimity among its 27 members to pass legislation.
Last December, after months of opposition, Mr Orban left the room during an EU leaders’ vote on whether to open accession negotiations with Ukraine, effectively abstaining from the vote.
He has similarly opposed the bloc’s financial and military support to Ukraine. He backed down from opposing a €50bn (£42bn) aid package that excluded weapons only when Brussels agreed in February to unfreeze around €10bn of its “cohesion funds”. The money had been intended for Budapest but was withheld due to fears Mr Orban’s administration was violating the rule of law.
Hungary still opposes the bloc sending weapons to Ukraine. It has vetoed seven legal decisions backed by the EU’s 26 other member states that would release €6.6bn tied to weapons supplies to Ukraine.
Budapest justifies its opposition by claiming Kyiv is failing to meet its demands in guaranteeing the rights of the country’s Hungarian minority.
That dispute stems from a law enacted by Kyiv in 2017, which demands Ukrainian schools teach children over the age of 10 in Ukrainian, a move that Budapest says robs a Hungarian community in western Ukraine of learning in their native tongue.
But it has been suggested that Mr Orban’s opposition is in part due to Hungary’s reliance on Russian natural gas.
While countries in Western Europe have made serious efforts to wean themselves off Russian gas since Moscow’s invasion, landlocked Hungary has been receiving 4.5 billion cubic metres of gas per year from Russia under a 15-year deal signed in 2021.
During a visit to Putin’s hometown of St Petersburg for an economic forum this year, Hungarian officials said they had no intention of halting their importing of Russian gas, despite pressure to do so, and accusations that they are helping fund Putin’s war machine.
Last October, Mr Orban became only the second European leader to meet with Mr Putin since the autocrat launched the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
During that meeting, Mr Orban told Mr Putin that Hungary had never wanted to oppose Russia.
