Negotiations
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The Hungarian Prime Minister went to Kyiv on Tuesday, July 2, to meet with the Ukrainian president and ask for a ceasefire that would pave the way for talks with the Kremlin. Zelensky pretended to listen, asking Orbán to stop blocking European aid.
There is a direct night train between Budapest and Kyiv, but it cannot be said that Viktor Orbán has recently been fond of rail escapades to the troubled lands of his eastern neighbor, so much is the noise on the line between the Hungarian Prime Minister and President Volodymyr Zelensky. The strongman of Budapest, on an election night in 2022, even called him an opponent. It was therefore somewhat to everyone’s surprise that Viktor Orbán arrived in Kyiv on the morning of July 2, the day after Hungary took over the rotating presidency of the European Union, to try to engage “The first steps to promote peace in Ukraine”, according to the explanations he gave before his departure to his state television “M1”.
A Covert Criticism of the Peace Summit
Orbán had never visited Kyiv during wartime, his last visit to the capital being in 2012, the same year that Vladimir Putin last visited Ukraine. Since then, Hungary has moved into Russia’s orbit, signing contracts with Gazprom, systematically thwarting the country’s Euro-Atlantic ambitions.
