Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, an outspoken critic of Western military aid to Ukraine, paid a surprise visit to Kyiv on Tuesday for talks with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Orban, who has the warmest relations of any European leader with Russian President Vladimir Putin, arrived a day after Hungary assumed the rotating six-month presidency of the EU Council. It is his first visit to Kyiv in more than a decade.
“The aim of the Hungarian presidency is to contribute to solving the challenges ahead of the European Union. That’s why my first trip was to Kyiv,” Orban wrote on Facebook under a photograph of him shaking hands with Zelenskyy.
- Separately, his press chief Bertalan Havasi told Reuters in an email that the two leaders would discuss bilateral relations, saying “the most important topic of the talks is the chance to create peace”, but gave no details.
Zelenskyy and Orban were expected to deliver statements to reporters later on Tuesday.
Ties between the neighbors have come under heavy strain since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, with Budapest often opposing European Union efforts to support Kyiv.
- Under Orban, who upset Western partners by holding talks with Putin last October, Hungary has repeatedly accused Ukraine of curbing the rights of roughly 150,000 ethnic Hungarians living in the far west of Ukraine.
Ukraine is keen to secure Hungary’s backing as it relies heavily on financial and military support from the 27-member EU, where unanimity is needed for many decisions
EU membership talks
Last week, the EU opened formal membership talks with Ukraine at its summit in Brussels, giving the country a morale-lifting boost, although a long and tough road still lies ahead before it can join the bloc.
Zelenskyy and Orban were filmed on the sidelines of that summit in what looked like an emotional exchange.
- Hungary used its complaints over language rights in Ukraine to block the decision until December when Orban left the room before an EU meeting on the issue, allowing the aid package to pass.
Some changes were made in December 2023 when the issue became critical for Kyiv’s EU accession talks. Budapest said the changes were an improvement but didn’t go far enough.
Coup attempt thwarted in Ukraine, security service says, as Hungary's Orbán arrives in Kyiv for talks
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s security service said Monday, it foiled a coup that would have “played into Russia’s hands” as his Ukrainian forces battled their Russian counterparts in the east of the country.
News of the plot emerged ahead of the visit of one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s only European allies, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, to Kyiv on Tuesday for talks with Zelenskyy.
The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) said in a Telegram post on Monday that a group of people were preparing “a series of provocations” in capital Kyiv.
It added that the group was led by a co-founder of a public organization known for its “anti-Ukrainian actions” since 2015, although it did not name either the individual or the group.
After calling for a public gathering in central Kyiv on Sunday, the suspects were planning to announce the removal of the country’s military and political leadership from power, the SBU said. Then they plotted to seize the building of the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine’s Parliament, the statement added.
The perpetrators “hoped to stir up the social and political situation within our country, which would work in Russia’s favor,” the security service said, although it did not explicitly say whether the Kremlin was behind the group or its plans.
In a separate statement, Ukraine’s Office of the Prosecutor General said Monday that the head of the group sought out members of the military and private security guards to help them carry out the plan.
NBC News could not independently verify the details of the alleged coup, one of several purported attempts to topple the Ukrainian leadership since Putin launched his invasion in February 2022.
Ukrainian investigators said in May that they foiled a Russian plot to assassinate Zelenskyy and other top military and political figures. Two colonels in the State Guard of Ukraine, which protects top officials, were detained on suspicion of enacting the plan.
And ahead of the Russian invasion, Zelenskyy claimed to have intelligence and recordings of a coup plot involving Russians and a Ukrainian billionaire oligarch.
News of the latest plot emerged two days before Orbán, Hungary’s Prime Minister, arrived in Kyiv for talks with Zelenskyy.
Orbán, a self-described “illiberal” leader, is known to have a close personal relationship with Putin and while he and his government have condemned the invasion of Ukraine, they have refused to criticize the Russian leader.
He has also accused Ukraine of infringing on the rights of an ethnic Hungarian minority in the country’s western region of Zakarpattia for years, complicating relations between the two neighbors.
Orbán’s visit comes the day after Hungary took over the six-month rotating presidency of the European Union, a position that has little real power but can be used to set the tone of the 27 nation bloc’s agenda.
He also vowed to resolve “all previous disputes” with Ukraine, and “focus on the future.”
Zelenskyy's chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, also said that an "important conversation" about the future of Europe, security, international law and the Peace Formula, Zelenskyy’s 10-point plan for ending the war, had taken place.
Elsewhere, in eastern Ukraine, fierce battles between the country's forces and their Russian rivals continued. However, Moscow’s counteroffensive in the northeastern Kharkiv region appeared to stall as newly-committed U.S. military supplies have started to trickle in.
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