BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán was in Kiev on Tuesday for talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, his first visit to the country since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.
Orbán’s press secretary confirmed to the Hungarian news agency MTI that the prime minister had arrived in the Ukrainian capital in the morning for the talks. Bertalan Havasi said the main topic of the rare meeting would be the possibility of establishing peace while Ukraine fends off the Russian invasion.
The visit comes a day after Hungary took over the six-month rotating presidency of the European Union, a position that carries little real power but can be used to set the tone for the bloc’s agenda. Hungarian officials have indicated they will act as “honest brokers” in the role, despite concerns from some EU lawmakers that Hungary’s democratic record makes it unfit to lead the bloc.
Orbán, known as Russian President Vladimir Putin’s closest ally in the EU, has long been accused by his European partners of dismantling democratic institutions at home and persistently obstructing the EU’s key policy priorities.
The bloc has frozen more than $20 billion in funding to Budapest over alleged rule of law violations and corruption. In addition, Orbán has waged numerous anti-EU communications campaigns, portraying the EU as an over-centralized, repressive organization.
He has also routinely blocked, delayed or watered down EU efforts to provide aid to Kiev and sanction Moscow over the war, frustrating Zelenskyy and other EU leaders. Orbán has long accused Kiev of mistreating an ethnic Hungarian minority in Ukraine’s western Transcarpathian region.
Orbán’s visit also comes as he tries to recruit members for a new nationalist alliance that he hopes will soon become the largest right-wing group in the European Parliament. On Sunday, Orbán met in Vienna with leaders of the far-right Freedom Party of Austria and the main Czech opposition party, and announced the creation of the new group, “Patriots for Europe.”
The trio would need to attract lawmakers from at least four EU countries to successfully form a group in the new European parliament, which held elections in June. Right-wing nationalist parties across Europe strengthened their positions in the elections, but ideological differences over the war in Ukraine and cooperation with Russia have often prevented deeper cooperation between some parties.
