Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has arrived in Moscow for talks with Vladimir Putin, Russian state-owned news agency TASS reported on Friday, in a surprise visit that has angered many senior European Union officials.
“Appeasement will not stop Putin,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen warned on X on Friday in response to Orbán’s visit, adding that only “unity and determination will pave the path to a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in Ukraine.”
European Council President Charles Michel also condemned Orbán’s visit, writing on X that the EU’s rotating presidency, which Hungary will head for the next six months, has “no mandate to engage with Russia on behalf of the EU”.
“The European Council is clear: Russia is the aggressor, Ukraine is the victim. No discussions about Ukraine can take place without Ukraine”, Michel said.
Earlier in the day, while acknowledging that he had no mandate to negotiate on behalf of the EU, Orbán stressed that it was impossible to “make peace from a comfortable armchair in Brussels” and that “we cannot sit back and wait for the war to miraculously end.”
Orbán’s visit to Moscow follows his surprise visit to Kyiv on Tuesday where he asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to consider a ceasefire with Russia to “speed up” potential peace negotiations between the two countries.
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty cited an unnamed source who said that Orbán had not informed the EU of his plans to travel to Moscow but that the bloc would have “strongly advised against” such a visit had it been informed ahead of time.