Orbán in Kyiv: Surprising visit, clear fronts

Nevertheless, the tone between Orbán and Selenskij did not seem to have been unfriendly: “We want to build relations between our countries and sign a cooperation agreement with Ukraine,” Orbán said. What exactly this entails is still unclear.

Earlier this year, it took EU leaders weeks to override Orbán’s veto and approve €50 billion in new aid to Ukraine, and in June Orbán assured them that Hungary would not stand in their way if NATO expanded its assistance program.

Different points of view

On the condition that Hungary does not have to participate in anything. “Hungary does not want to block NATO decisions that other member states support,” said Orbán. Hungary’s position on how to achieve peace in the Ukraine war differs from that of the other NATO states. However, Budapest acknowledges that “the weight and number of opinions that differ from ours are significant” and that Hungary cannot change that, added Orbán, whose country has held the EU Council Presidency since Monday.

He himself said: “As part of the EU Council Presidency, my first trip took me to Kyiv, because the issue of peace is important not only for the security of Ukraine, but for the security of Europe as a whole.”

Budapest is equally skeptical about the EU accession negotiations that were formally launched last week (they will take years): “Membership in the EU would not end the war. That requires a ceasefire and negotiations between Russia and Ukraine,” said Hungary’s Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó in a recent interview with KURIER.

Hungarian minority in Ukraine

Orbán’s visit to Kyiv is unlikely to have changed these positions. Nevertheless, the Hungarian Prime Minister offered his support in modernizing Ukraine and praised the “progress in solving the problems of the Hungarian minority in the country.” The latter is a key issue for Orbán – as is the role of the Hungarian minority in Romania. A Ukrainian minority law that drastically restricted teaching for children of ethnic minorities in their native languages ​​in 2017 had already caused massive resentment between Kyiv and Budapest before the Russian invasion. It was withdrawn at the end of 2023.

According to reports, the two politicians also agreed to open the first school for Ukrainian-speaking children in Hungary.

It seems that both Orbán and Zelensky can live well with the results of the meeting – even if it has not changed the situation on a larger scale.