Orban urges Ukraine to ‘consider a rapid ceasefire’ on first trip to war-torn kyiv

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has urged Ukraine “to consider a rapid ceasefire” during his first visit to the war-torn country since Vladimir Putin ordered the full-scale invasion.

After crucial talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in kyiv, in which the two countries pledged to strengthen relations, Mr Orban urged Ukraine to stop fighting and start negotiations with Russia, adding that the war was having a “very intense effect on the security of Europe”.

“We highly appreciate all of President Zelensky’s initiatives for 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 consider whether there could be a different approach: to stop the fire and then continue negotiations. A ceasefire could accelerate the pace of those negotiations.”

Mr Zelensky did not specify how he responded to that demand, but kyiv maintains that no ceasefire can take place until Russia withdraws its troops from Ukraine – a demand 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 raised concerns among bloc members, given Mr Orban’s continued reluctance to support Ukraine. It makes Budapest a co-legislator of the bloc’s assembly alongside the European Parliament, a considerable power.

But while Hungary’s push toward the negotiating table may be interpreted by some as another attempt by Mr. Orban to avoid standing up to Mr. Putin, Ukrainian officials said the visit had been productive.

“A lot has been done for this visit,” wrote Andriy Yermak, Mr Zelensky’s top adviser, on X, formerly Twitter. “An important conversation about the future of Europe, security, international law and the formula for peace.”

The last time Mr Orban met Mr Zelensky, on June 27, the two men were filmed in a heated exchange on the sidelines of a summit of European leaders in Brussels. Mr Zelensky then urged all EU leaders to step up their military support for Ukraine.

The Hungarian prime minister has regularly opposed the bloc’s support for kyiv, which requires unanimity of its 27 members to pass a law.

Last December, after months of opposition, Mr Orban walked out of a vote by EU leaders on whether to open accession talks with Ukraine, effectively abstaining from the vote.

He has also opposed EU financial and military support for Ukraine. He backed down from opposing a €50bn (£42bn) aid package that excluded only arms when Brussels agreed in February to release around €10bn from its “cohesion funds”. The money was intended for Budapest but was withheld over fears that Mr Orban’s administration would breach the rule of law.

Hungary continues to oppose EU arms shipments to Ukraine. It has vetoed seven court rulings backed by the other 26 EU member states that would have released €6.6 billion in arms deliveries to Ukraine.

Budapest justifies its opposition by claiming that kyiv is failing to meet its demands to guarantee the rights of the country’s Hungarian minority.

The dispute stems from a law kyiv passed in 2017 that requires Ukrainian schools to teach children over 10 in Ukrainian, a move Budapest says deprives a Hungarian community in western Ukraine of learning their native language.

But it has been suggested that Mr Orban’s opposition is partly due to Hungary’s reliance on Russian natural gas.

While Western European countries have made serious efforts to wean themselves off Russian gas since Moscow’s invasion, landlocked Hungary receives 4.5 billion cubic meters (bcm) 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 stopping imports of Russian gas, despite pressure to do so and accusations that they were helping to fund Putin’s war machine.

Last October, Mr Orban became the second European leader to meet Mr Putin since the autocrat launched the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

At the meeting, Mr Orban told Mr Putin that Hungary had never wanted to oppose Russia.