Difficult relationship - Orban pays a surprise visit to Selenskyj
For the first time since the beginning of the Russian armed conflict in February 2022, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban traveled to Ukraine on a Tuesday. Orban held "talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy" in Kiev, according to his spokesperson Bertalan Havasi, as reported by the Hungarian News Agency MTI. "The main topic of discussion is the possibility of creating peace," Havasi added.
The meeting between Orban and Zelenskyy, who had met briefly in December during the inauguration of Argentine President Javier Milei and at the EU summit in Brussels the previous week, had reportedly been prepared for months according to Ukrainian government sources.
Other EU heads of state and government, as well as representatives of other Western allies of Ukraine, regularly make solidarity visits to Kiev.
Hungary took over the EU Council Presidency on a rotating basis on Monday. Orban maintains close relations with Moscow despite the Russian armed conflict. In October 2023, he attended the Silk Road Forum in Beijing with Vladimir Putin, marking the first meeting between an EU head of state or government and Putin since the war began.
Orban last in Ukraine in 2012
The relations between Ukraine and Hungary are, however, complicated. Orban has repeatedly opposed EU aid for the Russia-attacked country and continues to maintain good relations with the Moscow government. Within the EU and NATO, Ukraine is counted among the largest critics of EU sanctions against Russia and EU financial aid for Kiev.
Orban has delayed EU sanctions against Russia and EU financial aid for Kiev on multiple occasions. He also criticized the opening of EU membership talks with Ukraine.
At the same time, Hungary is heavily dependent on Russian gas supplies, which partly flow through Ukraine. Kiev does not want to extend the contract, which expires at the end of the year.
Another contentious issue is the rights of the Hungarian minority in Ukraine, for whom Orban has acted as a patron since then. During a football match, the 61-year-old provoked with a scarf bearing the outline of Greater Hungary from 1920, which at the time included the currently Ukrainian Transcarpathia.
Orban was last in Ukraine in 2012. At the time, Viktor Yanukovych, who later fled to Russia, was still president – and the Crimea was not yet annexed by Russia.
Viktor Orban's visit to Ukraine in 2022 marked his return to the country after a decade, having last visited in 2012 during Yanukovych's presidency. Despite Hungary's reliance on Russian gas supplies and Orban's historically close relations with Moscow, Orban's meeting with Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kiev focused on the possibility of creating peace.
