The Hungarian leader said the parties must agree on a ceasefire before working out a precise peace plan.
Moscow and Kyiv must agree on a ceasefire before drawing up a detailed peace plan, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said. Speaking at an international economic conference in Cernobbio, Italy, on Friday, he stressed that both sides would eventually have to sit down at the negotiating table.
Orban said that for any mediation efforts to bear fruit, it was necessary to establish communication with both Russia and Ukraine. “If we wait for a peace plan that both sides accept, there will never be peace, because the first step is not a peace plan. The first step is a ceasefire.”
“First we need to establish communications, then we need to cease fire, and then we can negotiate a peace plan,” Orban emphasized.
In June, Switzerland hosted a peace conference on Ukraine, to which Russia was not invited. The event was largely centered around Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky's “peace formula,” which calls for Russia to withdraw its troops from all territory claimed by Ukraine, a plan that Moscow has already rejected as “out of touch with reality.”
Since Hungary took over the EU presidency in June, Orban has visited Kyiv, Moscow, Beijing and Washington as part of his visit. “peacekeeping mission” Tour. His trip to Moscow and meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin have drawn criticism in Brussels, with EU officials distancing themselves from the effort.
Budapest has long advocated a diplomatic solution to the conflict over arms sales to Kyiv. Orban is a staunch opponent of military aid to Ukraine, vowing not to drag Hungary into a full-scale war with Russia.
Peace talks between Russia and Ukraine broke down in the spring of 2022, with both sides accusing each other of making unrealistic demands. Putin said Kyiv's negotiators initially agreed to make Ukraine neutral and limit the size of its armed forces, but then abandoned the talks.
Putin reiterated on Thursday that Ukraine's Western backers are determined to force Kyiv “fight to the last Ukrainian” with the intent to cause “strategic defeat” in Moscow. He stressed that any future negotiations should be based on the documents developed during the talks in Istanbul in 2022.
Zelensky, meanwhile, urged the West to keep up pressure on Russia to accept Kyiv's terms. Speaking at a meeting with US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin at Ramstein Air Base in Germany on Friday, he insisted that Moscow must be forced to agree to “real world” already this fall.