MOSCOW (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin welcomed Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán to Moscow on Friday for a rare meeting with a European leader to discuss peace proposals for Ukraine.
Orbán's visit comes only days after he made a similar unannounced trip to Ukraine, where he met with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and proposed that Ukraine consider agreeing to an immediate cease-fire with Russia.
“The number of countries that can talk to both warring sides is diminishing,” Orbán said. “Hungary is slowly becoming the only country in Europe that can speak to everyone.”
In comments at the beginning of their meeting that were televised, Putin suggested that Orbán had come to Moscow as a representative of the European Council, despite several European officials having condemned the visit.
The Hungarian prime minister, widely seen as having the warmest relations with Vladimir Putin among all European Union leaders, has routinely blocked, delayed or watered down EU efforts to assist Ukraine and impose sanctions on Moscow for its actions in Ukraine. He has long argued for a cessation of hostilities in Ukraine but without outlining what that might mean for the country's territorial integrity or future security.
That posture has frustrated Hungary’s EU and NATO allies, which have broadly considered Russia’s actions as a breach of international law and a threat to the security of countries in Eastern Europe.
Putin told Orbán that he wanted to hear about the position of his “European colleagues” on Ukraine and discuss Moscow's plan for peace as well as bilateral relations. Orbán noted that the meeting was the fourteenth time the leaders have held bilateral talks since 2009.
European officials and leaders have heavily criticized Orbán's visit to Moscow, something only one other European leader has done since the start of the conflict.
“This is about appeasement. It’s not about peace,” European Commission spokesperson Eric Mamer said.
Hungary at the beginning of the month took over the six-month rotating presidency of the EU Council, a largely formal role that can be used to shape the bloc’s policy agenda. Orbán has said he wants to use the presidency to advocate for an end to the fighting in Ukraine.
The EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, said in a statement that Orbán’s visit to Moscow “takes place, exclusively, in the framework of the bilateral relations between Hungary and Russia.”
“Prime Minister Orbán has not received any mandate from the EU Council to visit Moscow," Borrell said, adding that his "position excludes official contacts between the EU and President Putin. The Hungarian Prime Minister is thus not representing the EU in any form.”
He noted that Putin has been indicted by the International Criminal Court and an arrest warrant released for his role in relation to the forced deportation of children from Ukraine to Russia.
Kaja Kallas, the outgoing Estonian prime minister nominated to become the next EU foreign policy chief, accused Orbán of “exploiting" the presidency and said the Hungarian leader is trying “to sow confusion.”
"The EU is united, clearly behind Ukraine and against Russian aggression,” Kallas, a staunch supporter of Ukraine, wrote Friday on the social media platform X.
In an email on Friday, Orbán's press chief, Bertalan Havasi, said the Hungarian leader's trip comes “as part of his peace mission” — reflecting the image of a peacemaker that the populist leader has cultivated since Putin sent his troops into Ukraine in February 2022. Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó also joined the trip to Moscow, according to a post on his Facebook page.
Speaking to Hungarian state radio before departing Friday morning, Orbán said he was aware that his country’s presidency of the EU “does not entitle us to negotiate on behalf of anyone.”
Without mentioning reports of his planned trip to Moscow, he said his trip earlier this week to Kyiv did not “need a mandate, because I do not represent anything. The only thing I do is go to those places where there is a war or the threat of war that has negative consequences for Europe and Hungary as well.”
Other EU officials have expressed dismay that Orbán undertook the trip unilaterally and without the approval of the bloc’s member states.
European Council President Charles Michel on Thursday said on the social media platform X that “the EU rotating presidency has no mandate to engage with Russia on behalf of the EU.”
“The European Council is clear: Russia is the aggressor, Ukraine is the victim. No discussions about Ukraine can take place without Ukraine,” Michel wrote.
Orbán is the first European leader to visit Russia and sit down for talks with Putin since Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer visited Moscow in April 2022, just weeks after Putin ordered his troops into Ukraine. During that visit he said he raised the issue of crimes allegedly committed in Ukraine by Russian forces.
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Spike reported from Budapest, Hungary. Associated Press reporters Dasha Litvinova in Tallinn, Estonia, and Emma Burrows in London contributed to this report.
Justin Spike And Vladimir Isachenkov, The Associated Press