Budapest (Hungary): Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has arrived in Moscow for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Orbán’s press chief said Friday, a rare visit to Russia by a European leader since it invaded Ukraine more than two years ago.
Orban’s visit comes only days after he made a similar unannounced trip to Ukraine, where he met with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and proposed that Ukraine consider agreeing to an immediate cease-fire with Russia.
Orban, widely considered Putin’s closest partner in the European Union, has routinely blocked, delayed or watered down EU efforts to assist Ukraine and impose sanctions on Moscow for its war. He has long argued for a cessation of hostilities in Ukraine but without outlining what that might mean for the country’s territorial integrity or future security.
Orban’s trip to Russia Friday was a “peace mission”, Bertalan Havasi, his press chief, told Hungarian news agency MTI.