Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Friday to discuss the war in Ukraine.
Putin said he wanted to take the opportunity to “discuss the nuances that have developed” over the conflict with Orban, who visited Kyiv earlier in the week.
Earlier Orban said his country would use its six-month term holding the rotating EU presidency to advance a negotiated peace in Ukraine.
“You cannot make peace from a comfortable armchair in Brussels … we cannot sit back and wait for the war to miraculously end,” he wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
NATO was informed about Orban’s Moscow visit
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said NATO had been informed about Orban’s trip to Moscow in advance. Orban was traveling in his capacity as Hungarian prime minister and will not represent NATO, he added.
Hungary joined NATO in 1999, and Orban took the reins of power in 2010. Unlike other NATO leaders, Orban has continued to maintain close ties with Russia following its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The 32 leaders of the military alliance are set to meet next week for the annual summit in Washington D.C.
Criticism from fellow EU leaders
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen warned “appeasement will not stop Putin. Only unity and determination will pave the path to a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in Ukraine,” she wrote on X.
The EU’s top diplomat was more blunt sayin Orban does not represent the European Union on his visit. He dismissed the visit as a billateral meeting between Moscow and Budapest.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said the bloc’s “clear message is that Ukraine can count on our solidarity, (Russian President Vladimir) Putin cannot count on our solidarity and support waning.”
Hungary’s six-month EU presidency gives the central European country influence over the bloc’s agenda and priorities for those months.
lo/rm (AFP, dpa, Reuters)
