Hungary’s Viktor Orban lacks a concrete peace plan, yet he has spent the past two weeks on a whirlwind tour of Kyiv, Moscow, Azerbaijan, Beijing, Washington, and even Mar-a-Lago. His solo mission has angered leaders in the EU and US.
“Peace will not come by itself in the Russia-Ukraine war; someone has to make it,” he declares in videos posted daily on his Facebook page.
Orban has faced severe criticism from both Brussels and Washington for undermining EU and NATO unity and for his close ties with Vladimir Putin and China’s leader Xi Jinping.
While few dispute his central premise that peace requires peacemakers, his strong economic relationship with Russia’s president exposes him to accusations of acting as Putin’s puppet.
The right-wing Hungarian PM suggests that a ceasefire with a specific deadline would be a start.
“I am not negotiating on behalf of anyone,” he stated in an interview with Hungarian radio during a brief stopover in Budapest between visits to Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv and Putin in Moscow.
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