Viktor Orbán visits Kyiv for surprise talks with Volodymyr Zelenskiy

The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy (right), and the Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orbán, at their meeting in Kyiv on Tuesday.

Hungary’s prime minister has made a surprise visit to Kyiv for talks with Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the first trip by Europe’s most pro-Russian leader to the Ukrainian capital since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion 28 months ago

The visit on Tuesday morning by Viktor Orbán, an outspoken critic of western military and financial aid to Ukraine, comes a day after Hungary took over the rotating EU presidency until the end of the year, to the dismay of many other European politicians, given the country’s frequent clashes with Brussels over domestic rule-of-law issues and foreign policy.

“The talks will focus on possibilities for achieving peace, as well as issues in Hungarian-Ukrainian bilateral relations,” Orbán’s spokesperson, Zoltán Kovács, wrote on X.

Ukrainian media later published photographs of the talks, showing Zelenskiy and Orbán seated opposite each other around a small wooden table.

It was not immediately clear if the two leaders planned to hold a press briefing after their talks.

Hungary has been at odds with other Nato countries over Orbán’s continued cultivation of close ties to Russia and refusal to send arms to Ukraine, with Budapest’s foreign minister in May calling plans to help the war-torn country a “crazy mission”.

The Kremlin on Tuesday downplayed Orbán’s visit to Kyiv, stating it did not “expect anything” from the trip.

A Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said the Hungarian leader was merely “fulfilling his duties” as part of the country’s presidency of the EU. He added that Moscow was not in contact with Budapest before Orbán’s trip to Kyiv. Peskov also commended the Hungarian leader as “a politician who strongly defends his country’s interests”.

Budapest has kept channels open with Moscow, and Orbán’s foreign minister, Péter Szijjártó, has made at least five trips to Russia since the start of the war, most recently to visit an economic forum in St Petersburg last month.

Hungary said last month it would not block Nato decisions on providing support for Ukraine as long as Budapest was not involved in the aid.

Orbán also recently endorsed Mark Rutte to become the next head of Nato with the assurance that Hungary’s forces and financial resources would not be committed to supporting Ukraine.

One source in Budapest with knowledge of the matter said Orbán’s plan to visit Kyiv came together after lengthy negotiations on the issue of rights for Ukraine’s Hungarian-speaking minority, who live in the far west of Ukraine close to the two countries’ border.

“It was a precondition for the meeting that the issue of nationality rights was resolved. In recent weeks, an agreement has been reached. They will be able to announce this as a success,” said a source in Budapest with knowledge of the buildup to the visit.

While nationality rights have been one of Budapest’s most vocal complaints when it comes to Ukraine, sceptics of Orbán have accused him of using the issue as a smokescreen to facilitate the promotion of Russian talking points over the conflict.

Zelenskiy and Orban have clashed numerous times since the start of the full-scale invasion.

Orbán included Zelenskiy in a list of “opponents” who had supposedly conspired against him and backed the opposition, while the Ukrainian president personally called out the Hungarian leader for his lack of support to Kyiv in the days after Russia’s invasion.

The two leaders were last seen having an animated exchange at the European Council summit in Brussels on 27 June.