Hungary will forge ahead with its self-styled Ukraine “peace mission”, Budapest’s top diplomat vowed Tuesday, a day after Prime Minister Viktor Orban met US president-elect Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago estate.
Orban — the closest political partner of both Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin in the European Union — has repeatedly called for peace talks and refused to send military aid to Ukraine since Russia’s invasion in 2022.
He infuriated fellow EU leaders in July by conducting breakaway diplomacy with Russia to explore a path to ending the war in Ukraine, just days after taking over the bloc’s rotating six-month presidency.
Meanwhile Trump has long claimed he will settle the nearly three-year conflict within “24 hours” once in power, raising alarm in Kyiv that it will be forced to make huge territorial concessions in exchange for peace.
On Monday, Orban held talks with the president-elect as well as his adviser Elon Musk, owner of social media network X, the nationalist leader wrote on Facebook.
Hungary’s foreign minister Peter Szijjarto also joined the trip to Florida.
According to Szijjarto, the talks proved that “it is no coincidence that… those who are pushing for peace in Ukraine were delighted that President Donald Trump won this election”.
“There will be at least two more events this week which will be part of the Hungarian peace mission tomorrow or the day after tomorrow,” he told a press briefing in Budapest, without elaborating.
Orban had already visited his “dear friend” Trump in Mar-a-Lago twice this year, Ukraine was also featured at both of those talks.
On Saturday, French President Emmanuel Macron hosted three-way talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Trump at the Elysee Palace, amid heightened fears about the level of support Ukraine would receive under the incoming US administration.
On Sunday, the president-elect called for an “immediate ceasefire”, writing on his Truth Social platform that Zelensky was ready to “make a deal and stop the madness”.
Trump also said in an interview aired Sunday that he would “probably” reduce the aid Ukraine receives from the United States, Kyiv’s key backer.
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