By bne IntelliNews
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban made an unannounced visit to Kyiv on July 2, marking his first visit to Ukraine since the onset of the war, for talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy expected to focus on peace and bilateral relations.
“The talks will focus on possibilities for achieving peace, as well as current issues in Hungarian-Ukrainian bilateral relations,” Orban’s spokesperson, Zoltán Kovács, wrote on X.
Orban, a vocal critic of Western military and financial aid to Ukraine, arrived in Kyiv a day after Hungary assumed the rotating presidency of the EU Council. Hungary's tenure in this role has sparked controversy due to the country’s frequent clashes with Brussels over domestic rule-of-law issues and its foreign policy.
There is a fear that at the helm of the European Council, Hungary could slow down EU accession talks with Ukraine, but according to diplomats, Orban's room for manoeuvre will be limited. The decision to give Ukraine candidate status hence was brought forward by the outgoing Belgian presidency and the next aid package has also been cleared as EU members feared that Budapest, which has obstructed the disbursement of EU funds to help arm Ukraine, could have blocked Kyiv’s accession talks.
Budapest has consistently opposed Ukraine's aspirations to join Nato and the EU, refused to send arms to Ukraine and obstructed EU aid, resisted sanctions on Russia, consistently called for peace talks, and maintained close relations with Moscow throughout the war. Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó has visited Russia at least five times since the war began, including a recent trip to the St Petersburg International Economic Forum.
Despite this stance, Hungary announced last month that it would not block Nato decisions on supporting Ukraine, provided Budapest was not directly involved in the aid. Orban also recently endorsed Mark Rutte to become the next head of Nato, while assuring that Hungary’s forces and financial resources would not be committed to supporting Ukraine.
Relations betwen Ukraine and Hungary have also been strained by what Budapest argues are discriminatory laws against ethnic Hungarians in Ukraine.
Sources in Budapest told the Guardian that the visit was confirmed after negotiations on the rights of the ethnic Hungarian minority living in Ukraine.
'It was a precondition for the meeting that the issue of nationality rights was resolved,' reported The Guardian, citing a source. 'In recent weeks, an agreement has been reached. They will be able to announce this as a success.'
Budapest has repeatedly accused Kyiv of discriminating against the Hungarian ethnic minority in southwestern Ukraine, an accusation that Ukrainian leadership denies. Ukraine says it has addressed all Hungarian concerns about the language rights of ethnic Hungarians.
