Viktor Orbán to meet Vladimir Putin after kyiv trip

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Viktor Orbán is set to meet Vladimir Putin on Friday, just after the Hungarian leader’s first visit to wartime kyiv, in what appears to be an attempt to act as a peace broker between Russia and Ukraine.

A Hungarian official and two European officials confirmed media reports that Orbán would meet the Russian president on Friday.

Orbán has met Vladimir Putin twice since the Russian leader ordered the invasion of Ukraine and has repeatedly rejected EU aid to kyiv and sanctions against Russia. But as Hungary took over the rotating EU presidency on Monday, Orbán made a surprise visit to Ukraine, where he spent three hours with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

“I think his strategy is to listen to both sides,” said one person familiar with the matter.

Charles Michel, outgoing president of the European Council that represents EU leaders, said on X on Thursday that “the rotating EU presidency has no mandate to engage with Russia on behalf of the EU,” adding that “Russia is the aggressor, Ukraine is the victim. No discussion on Ukraine can take place without Ukraine.”

Dmitry Peskov, Putin’s spokesman, did not respond to a request for comment. He declined to confirm or deny reports that Orbán would visit Moscow, but promised that Putin’s schedule on Friday would be “packed with events.”

Orbán’s visit would be the first by an EU leader to Moscow since Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer unsuccessfully tried to negotiate an end to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in April 2022.

The Hungarian prime minister defied his allies last year when he travelled to Beijing to become the first Western leader to meet Putin after the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for war crimes against the Russian leader.

The upcoming trip to Moscow was first reported by Szabolcs Panyi, an investigative journalist with the Eastern European group VSquare.

On Monday, Orbán suggested to Zelenskyy that Ukraine propose a deadline for a ceasefire that would pave the way for full peace negotiations with Russia. The Hungarian leader said he did not want to convince Zelenskyy or make a specific proposal to the Ukrainian president. Instead, he wanted to “get to know better the position of the Ukrainian president and his limits in negotiations aimed at peace.”

Zelensky said the leaders focused on “how to achieve a just and lasting peace.” He had previously said that any direct negotiations at this stage of the war would amount to a capitulation by Ukraine.

Hungarian officials said Orbán was surprised by Zelensky’s optimism about kyiv’s chances of winning the war on its own terms and recovering all of its territory from Russian occupation.

Despite its recent contacts with Ukraine, Budapest is maintaining its position, a Hungarian official said.

Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó called his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov on the same day of Orbán’s visit to kyiv, a sign that Budapest is pursuing a “multi-vector” approach, the official said.

According to the Orban administration, all peace efforts that did not involve Russia were meaningless.

Zelensky and his chief of staff Andriy Yermak said Russia would be invited to a second peace summit to be hosted by kyiv later this year.

“Real peace negotiations can only take place if all warring parties are sitting around the table,” Szijjártó said in May.

Additional reporting by Christopher Miller in Kyiv