The Hungarian Prime Minister, Viktor Orbán, assured the Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky, of his willingness to help Ukraine on Tuesday 2 July, during his first visit to Kyiv since the Russian military aggression of February 2022.
“We are at Ukraine’s disposal and we will do everything we can to help”, assured the Hungarian leader, whose country has held the presidency of the Council of the European Union since 1 July, quoted by AFP.
For months, Hungary has been blocking the granting of new tranches of EU aid to finance Member States’ military support for Ukraine, and has long opposed the start of negotiations on Ukraine’s accession to the EU, partly because of the situation of Hungarian minorities in Ukraine.
The Hungarian Presidency of the EU Council is expected to lead the Member States’ discussions on providing further European macrofinancial assistance to Kyiv, in line with the decision of the G7 countries (see EUROPE 13442/1).
Mr Orbán also advised the Ukrainian President to “promptly consider the possibility of a ceasefire”, which would be “connected to a deadline and would give a chance to speed up peace talks”. Conversely, Mr Zelensky invited him to join Ukraine’s efforts to organise a new peace summit, following the one that took place in Switzerland in June (see EUROPE 13433/21). (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)