Hungary's Orbán calls for peace in Ukraine amid rumoured Moscow visit

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has said his country will use its term holding the presidency of the European Union Council to advance a negotiated peace in Ukraine, as reports suggested the controversial leader is set to visit Moscow.

After Hungary assumed the six-month rotating post on July 1, Orbán posted on the social media platform X: "You cannot make peace from a comfortable armchair in Brussels. Even if the rotating EU presidency has no mandate to negotiate on behalf of the EU, we cannot sit back and wait for the war to miraculously end."

"We will serve as an important tool in making the first steps towards peace. This is what our peace mission is about," he added.

Several media outlets have reported that Orbán is due in Moscow in the coming days following his visit to Kiev on Tuesday, his first since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Orbán did not mention the potential visit in his post, but said: "I go to places where there is a threat of war or a war that has negative consequences for Europe and Hungary."

Widely seen as a sympathizer of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Orbán has repeatedly delayed EU negotiations on providing aid for Ukraine and imposing sanctions on Moscow.

While visiting Kiev, the Hungarian president called on his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky to consider a ceasefire. There are currently no direct negotiations taking place between Ukraine and Russia.

Orbán became the only EU leader to travel to Russia since the outbreak of the war, when he attended the funeral of former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev in September 2022.