Orbán calls Putin to discuss ending Ukraine war

Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán called Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday to talk about peace plans for Ukraine.

“I had an hour-long phone conversation this morning with President Putin,” Orbán wrote on social media.

“These are the most dangerous weeks of the Russia Ukraine War. We are taking every possible diplomatic step to argue in favour of a ceasefire and peace talks,” he added.

Earlier on Wednesday, the Kremlin issued a statement confirming that the phone call had been initiated by Budapest. “Vladimir Putin had a telephone conversation with Prime Minister of Hungary Viktor Orbán at the initiative of the Hungarian side,” the Kremlin said.

According to the Kremlin, Orbán expressed interest in “promoting a joint search” for political and diplomatic ways to resolve the war in Ukraine, while Putin said Kyiv is preventing “the possibility of a peaceful settlement of the conflict.”

The two leaders also discussed energy and economic cooperation, as well as “the tense situation in the Middle East region in the context of the recent events in Syria,” the Kremlin said.

Orbán’s phone call with Putin comes only two days after his meeting with United States President-elect Donald Trump and billionaire tech mogul Elon Musk at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home in Florida on Monday.

However, according to Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov, the Hungarian leader did not deliver any messages from Trump, and he also denied that Orbán and Putin discussed a possible meeting in the future.

The Hungarian prime minister is the second European leader to hold a phone call with the Russian president in the last month. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz also spoke with Putin on the phone on Nov. 15.

Orbán was also the first EU leader to meet with Putin in Moscow in July, shortly after assuming the EU presidency, despite Western efforts to isolate the Russian leader.

Csongor Körömi contributed reporting.