Hungarian right-wing Prime Minister Viktor Orbán emphasized at a press conference in Budapest on Wednesday that Hungary will do everything possible to ensure a ceasefire in Ukraine. He spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday.
Orbán stressed that he had proposed that the Presidents of Ukraine and France – Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Emmanuel Macron – and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz meet in Budapest. This is not a peace negotiation, but an agreement on an immediate ceasefire. The reactions had been positive, but there were conditions for an immediate ceasefire.
What is happening in Ukraine is a war started by the Russians, an aggression. That is the position of the EU and thus also of Hungary, Orbán clarified, whom the opposition and Zelenskyj had accused of being too close to Russia. Atrocities against the civilian population in Ukraine needed to be investigated and who was responsible for them identified. But in today’s world, one has to be very careful about what one believes because it is easy to fake, the PM claimed.
Ukrainian President Zelenskyy has a “bad habit” because he wants to tell everyone what to do. Zelenskyy should stop doing that, especially when he asks for help, Orbán stressed. When asked, he stressed that he did not want to expel any Russian diplomats from Hungary.
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