Hungarian Prime Minister arrives in Russia to meet President Putin

“The peace mission continues. Next stop is Moscow,” Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban wrote on Twitter today upon arriving in the Russian capital. He then went to the Kremlin and met with Russian President Vladimir Putin for nearly three hours, discussing a range of issues including the Ukraine conflict and Hungary’s EU presidency.

This is the first meeting of an EU leader with Mr Putin in Moscow since April 2022, two months after Russia launched its campaign in Ukraine, and the first time Prime Minister Orban has met the Russian President in Moscow in more than two years, although the two have met at other events.

President Putin said he had a “frank and very effective” dialogue on the war situation, as well as discussing with Prime Minister Orban options for resolving the conflict. He reiterated the conditions for peace talks, which required Kiev to withdraw all its forces from the four regions that Moscow annexed by the end of 2022: Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson.

“Ukraine is not ready to give up the intention to continue the war until victory. They do not want to end the military action, because that would mean ending martial law and holding elections. The chances of the Ukrainian leadership, who have lost their legitimacy and credibility, winning the election are almost zero,” Mr. Putin said.

The Russian president insisted that the negotiations should lead to a “complete end to the conflict”, rather than just “ceasefires to allow Kiev to gather weapons and forces”.

Prime Minister Orban said that the views between Russia and Ukraine were too different and that “many steps” were needed to end the conflict.

The trip comes days after Hungary assumed the rotating EU presidency. Prime Minister Orban also traveled to Kiev on July 2 and met with President Volodymyr Zelensky, calling on Ukraine to accept a “quick ceasefire” with Russia to promote peace talks, but received no response.

Many EU officials and member states have criticized Mr Orban’s trip to Moscow, saying it undermines the rotating EU presidency and causes divisions within the bloc. The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry also criticized the meeting between Prime Minister Orban and President Putin, stressing that Kiev was not consulted or informed about the event.

Prime Minister Orban is one of the EU leaders with the most pro-Russia stance. He has frequently criticized European plans for military and financial support for Ukraine and blocked a 50 billion euro ($53 billion) aid package from Brussels to Kiev for weeks.

The Hungarian prime minister has also publicly opposed EU talks on Ukraine’s accession and the bloc’s sanctions against Russia, although he has not yet used his veto to block these moves.

Hungary’s stance is one of the reasons why Kiev-Budapest relations have deteriorated in recent years. After his re-election in April 2022, Prime Minister Orban declared President Zelensky as his “rival” who he defeated during the election campaign, responding to the Ukrainian leader’s criticism of Hungary for not supporting Kiev in the early stages of the conflict.