Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary, one of many few European leaders who maintains heat relations with Moscow and has referred to as on Kyiv to capitulate to Russia’s calls for to finish the bloodshed, arrived in Ukraine on Tuesday morning for his first wartime go to to the nation, his spokesman stated.
A vocal critic of supplying army and different monetary help to Ukraine who relishes his position because the odd man out in each the European Union and NATO, Mr. Orban stated in an interview with the Hungarian information media on Monday night time that the go to can be “the primary steps” in selling his imaginative and prescient for ending the struggle.
That imaginative and prescient stands in stark distinction to the plan outlined by President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, whose authorities has constantly stated that Russia should pull its troops out of Ukraine’s internationally acknowledged territory earlier than any peace talks can start. President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, nonetheless, has proven no indicators of backing down, leaving the 2 sides as far aside as ever.
“He’s making an attempt to interrupt out of political no man’s land within the E.U., and displaying a extra open method towards Kyiv can be key on this regard,” Edit Zgut-Przybylska, an assistant professor on the Polish Academy of Sciences who has written extensively about Russian affect in Hungary, stated of Mr. Orban.
Though Hungary lately took over the rotating presidency of the European Union, she stated, he won’t be able to “occupy Brussels” as he has vowed, and due to this fact should discover a completely different tactic to exert his affect.
Regardless of Mr. Orban’s open embrace of Moscow — together with a assembly with Mr. Putin in Beijing, the place he advised the Russian chief that Hungary “by no means needed to confront Russia” and “has at all times been wanting to broaden contacts” — Mr. Zelensky stated it was vital that Ukraine’s and Hungary’s leaders maintain formal discussions.
“We have to set up a constructive assembly between our nations, as a result of now we have widespread borders, we’re neighbors, and we have to discuss,” Mr. Zelensky stated in December after the 2 leaders had a quick, animated dialog in Argentina in the course of the inauguration ceremony of that nation’s newly elected president.
Mr. Zelensky stated that the 2 had engaged in a “frank” dialogue and that he had pressed Mr. Orban on his resistance to Ukraine’s bid to hitch the European Union.
“I requested him to offer me only one motive,” Mr. Zelensky stated. “Not three, not 5, not 10, only one motive, and I’m ready for a solution.”
Mr. Orban advised reporters after the encounter that he had accepted an invite to go to Ukraine, with a caveat.
“I advised him I’d be at his disposal,” Mr. Orban stated. “We simply must make clear one query: About what?”
That remained unclear as Mr. Orban’s motorcade made its technique to the Hungarian Embassy on Tuesday earlier than his anticipated assembly with Mr. Zelensky.
“The journey doesn’t imply that the Hungarian authorities will make a U-turn in politics,” Professor Zgut-Przybylska stated. “Orban has been enjoying this ‘peacock’ dance for a decade, and Hungary’s power dependency on Russia will stay stronger than ever.”
