Viktor OrbĆ”n is expected to meet Vladimir Putin on Friday just after the Hungarian leaderās first wartime visit to Kyiv in what appears to be an attempt to act as a peace broker between Russia and Ukraine.
One Hungarian and two EU officials confirmed media reports that OrbĆ”n would meet Russiaās president on Friday.
OrbĆ”n has seen Putin twice since Russiaās leader ordered the full-scale invasion of Ukraine and has repeatedly held up EU aid for Kyiv and sanctions on Russia. But as Hungary took over the rotating presidency of the EU on Monday, OrbĆ”n made a surprise visit to Ukraine, where he spent three hours with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
āI think it is his strategy to listen to both parties,ā said one person familiar with the matter.
Charles Michel, the outgoing president of the European Council which represents EU leaders, posted on X on Thursday that āthe EU rotating presidency has no mandate to engage with Russia on behalf of the EUā, adding that āRussia is the aggressor, Ukraine is the victim. No discussions about Ukraine can take place without Ukraine.ā
Dmitry Peskov, Putinās spokesperson, did not respond to a request for comment. Peskov declined to confirm or deny reports that OrbĆ”n would visit Moscow to Russian state newswires, but promised Putinās schedule on Friday would be āeventfulā.
OrbĆ”nās visit would be the first by an EU leader to Moscow since Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer made an unsuccessful effort to broker an end to Russiaās invasion of Ukraine in April 2022.
Hungaryās 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 Russiaās leader.
The upcoming trip to Moscow was first reported by Szabolcs Panyi, an investigative journalist with the east European VSquare group.
OrbĆ”n on Monday suggested to Zelenskyy that Ukraine propose a deadline for a ceasefire that would pave the way for full peace talks with Russia. Hungaryās leader said he did not want to convince Zelenskyy, nor did he intend to make a specific proposal to Ukraineās president ā rather, he wanted to ālearn the Ukrainian presidentās position and its limits better during the negotiations aimed at peaceā.
Zelenskyy said the leaders focused on āhow to bring a just and lasting peace closerā. Previously he had maintained that any direct talks at this point in the war would amount to Ukraine capitulating.
Hungarian officials said OrbĆ”n was surprised at how optimistic Zelenskyy was about Kyivās chances to win the war on its own terms and recovering all of its territory from Russian occupation.
Despite its recent outreach to Ukraine, Budapest is maintaining its position, a Hungarian official said.
Hungaryās foreign minister PĆ©ter SzijjĆ”rtĆ³ called his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov on the same day as OrbĆ”nās Kyiv visit in a sign that Budapest is pursuing a āmulti-vectorialā approach, the official said.
Any peace efforts that did not involve Russia were meaningless, according to the Orban administration.
Zelenskyy and his chief of staff Andriy Yermak have said Russia would be invited to a second peace summit to be organised by Kyiv sometime later this year.
āReal peace negotiations can only take place if all warring parties are sitting around the table,ā SzijjĆ”rtĆ³ said in May.
Additional reporting by Christopher Miller in Kyiv