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Author: Julia Disa
(Reuters) – Ukraine condemned Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán for undermining Western unity by inviting Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday, criticism Budapest said showed Kiev was not interested in a “Christmas ceasefire” in the war.
Orban, who has had closer ties to Putin than any other European leader during Russia’s 33-month war in Ukraine, said they spoke for an hour and he believed the fighting was now in its “most dangerous weeks” yet.
With Donald Trump poised to return to the White House next month promising a swift end to the fighting, the war is in an uncertain phase, making Kiev even more sensitive to moves it sees as diminishing Putin’s pariah status in the West.
“No one should raise (his) personal image at the expense of unity,” Zelensky wrote on X after the Orbán-Putin call, appearing to mock Hungary’s self-proclaimed attempts to launch a peacekeeping mission to end the war.
“We all hope that Orban will at least not invite Assad to Moscow to listen to his one-hour lectures,” Zelensky said, referring to Russia’s decision to grant political asylum to the deposed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Responding in kind with the X statement, Orbán fired back, saying that Budapest had “proposed a Christmas ceasefire and a large-scale prisoner exchange. It is sad that President Zelensky clearly rejected and ruled it out today.”
The Hungarian leader did not specify when and how he proposed such a truce, nor whether the same offer was sent to Putin over the phone. There was no mention of a ceasefire in the Kremlin’s reading of the call.
Dmytro Lytvyn, an adviser to the Ukrainian president, said there was no prior warning or communication from Hungary, which currently holds the presidency of the Council of the European Union, before Orban invited Putin.
“We only need peace, not PR,” he said in a written statement, adding that Hungary has not discussed a ceasefire with Ukraine.
Orban himself repeatedly called for a ceasefire.
Kiev officials have consistently said this would play into Russia’s hands, as it could freeze the current front lines with Russia, which holds nearly 20% of Ukraine’s territory.
Kiev has insisted that it also needs security guarantees, namely membership in the NATO military alliance that would prevent Russia from using the ceasefire to prepare for another invasion. Moscow considers Ukraine’s entry into NATO unacceptable.
The Kremlin announced that Putin told Orban during a telephone conversation that Ukraine’s position precludes the possibility of a peaceful solution to the war.
Putin said that Ukraine must not join NATO and that Russia should be left in full control of the four Ukrainian regions that his troops currently partially control in order to reach a peace deal.
Orban is not the first leader to be criticized by Kiev for calling him the leader of Russia.
Zelensky criticized German Chancellor Olaf Scholz for talking to Putin in November, saying their conversation opened a Pandora’s ( OTC: ) box that undermined efforts to end the war and would only lead to more similar calls.
“There can be no discussion about the war that Russia is waging against Ukraine, without Ukraine,” Zelensky said on Wednesday.
