Kyiv and its Western allies on Friday hit out at Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban after Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted him in Moscow for talks on the Ukraine conflict.
Putin told Orban, Russia’s closest EU ally, that Ukraine must withdraw its troops from regions that Moscow has annexed if it wants peace.
However, Kyiv was “not ready to drop the idea of waging war until a victorious end,” he said, calling the talks at the Kremlin a “really useful, frank conversation” on the conflict.
Photo: EPA-EFE
EU officials, the US and NATO blasted the Hungarian prime minister’s surprise trip.
Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico offered a rare voice of support, saying he would have joined Orban had his health permitted after surviving an assassination attempt in May.
The Russian and Hungarian leaders “talked about the possible ways of resolving” the Ukraine conflict, Putin said in remarks after a bilateral meeting.
Orban, who visited Kyiv earlier this week, in turn said “positions are far apart” between the two sides with “many” steps needed to achieve peace.
The visit came just days after Hungary took over the EU’s rotating presidency and Putin told Orban he expected him to outline “the position of European partners” on Ukraine.
The Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs lambasted the meeting, saying that the trip “was made by the Hungarian side without any agreement or coordination with Ukraine.”
EU leaders also lashed out at Orban over the trip.
“Appeasement will not stop Putin,” European Commission Presdient Ursula von der Leyen wrote on X. “Only unity and determination will pave the path to a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in Ukraine.”
EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell said in a statement that Orban’s “visit to Moscow takes place, exclusively, in the framework of the bilateral relations between Hungary and Russia.”
“Orban has not received any mandate from the EU Council to visit Moscow,” he said.
The EU has firmly opposed Russia’s military offensive in Ukraine, imposing 14 rounds of unprecedented sanctions on Moscow.
“That position excludes official contacts between the EU and President Putin. The Hungarian Prime Minister is thus not representing the EU in any form,” Borrell said. “It is worth recalling that President 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.”
EU Council chief Charles Michel had earlier reiterated the common stance that “no discussions about Ukraine can take place without Ukraine.”
The White House also criticized the trip as “counterproductive” and the NATO military alliance, of which Hungary is a member, distanced itself.
Orban’s visit “will not advance the cause of peace and is counterproductive to promoting Ukraine’s sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.
NATO Secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg said Orban had informed the alliance of his trip, but the Hungarian leader was “not representing NATO at these meetings.”
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk expressed disbelief at Orban’s Moscow trip, while Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo called it “disturbing news.”
However, Fico, whose country has like Hungary refused to send military aid to Ukraine, expressed his “admiration” for Orban’s trips to Moscow and Kyiv.
“There are never enough peace talks and initiatives,” Fico said in his first public appearance since a May 15 assassination attempt.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian state TV the visit had been Orban’s idea and Russian officials only heard about the trip on Wednesday — a day after Orban had visited Kyiv.
DENIAL: Pyongyang said a South Korean drone filmed unspecified areas in a North Korean border town, but Seoul said it did not operate drones on the dates it cited North Korea’s military accused South Korea of flying drones across the border between the nations this week, yesterday warning that the South would face consequences for its “unpardonable hysteria.” Seoul quickly denied the accusation, but the development is likely to further dim prospects for its efforts to restore ties with Pyongyang. North Korean forces used special electronic warfare assets on Sunday to bring down a South Korean drone flying over North Korea’s border town. The drone was equipped with two cameras that filmed unspecified areas, the General Staff of the North Korean People’s Army said in a statement. South Korea infiltrated another drone
COMMUNIST ALIGNMENT: To Lam wants to combine party chief and state presidency roles, with the decision resting on the election of 200 new party delegates next week Communist Party of Vietnam General Secretary To Lam is seeking to combine his party role with the state presidency, officials said, in a move that would align Vietnam’s political structure more closely to China’s, where President Xi Jinping (習近平) heads the party and state. Next week about 1,600 delegates are to gather in Hanoi to commence a week-long communist party congress, held every five years to select new leaders and set policy goals for the single-party state. Lam, 68, bade for both top positions at a party meeting last month, seeking initial party approval ahead of the congress, three people briefed by
Indonesia and Malaysia have become the first countries to block Grok, the artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot developed by Elon Musk’s xAI, after authorities said it was being misused to generate sexually explicit and nonconsensual images. The moves reflect growing global concern over generative AI tools that can produce realistic images, sound and text, while existing safeguards fail to prevent their abuse. The Grok chatbot, which is accessed through Musk’s social media platform X, has been criticized for generating manipulated images, including depictions of women in bikinis or sexually explicit poses, as well as images involving children. Regulators in the two Southeast Asian
ICE DISPUTE: The Trump administration has sought to paint Good as a ‘domestic terrorist,’ insisting that the agent who fatally shot her was acting in self-defense Thousands of demonstrators chanting the name of the woman killed by a US federal agent in Minneapolis, Minnesota, took to the city’s streets on Saturday, amid widespread anger at use of force in the immigration crackdown of US President Donald Trump. Organizers said more than 1,000 events were planned across the US under the slogan “ICE, Out for Good” — referring to the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which is drawing growing opposition over its execution of Trump’s effort at mass deportations. The slogan is also a reference to Renee Good, the 37-year-old mother shot dead on Wednesday in her
RSS