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Orbán in Kyiv and a foiled plot
Summary
A look back at two political stories from Ukraine reported in the days before 3 July 2024: a Hungarian visit and an alleged plan to seize parliament.
What was Ukraine's political picture on 3 July 2024? It was shaped by two reports from the preceding days: a visit to Kyiv by a foreign leader and the disclosure of an alleged plot against parliament.
On 2 July 2024, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán visited Kyiv for the first time since the start of the Russian invasion. He proposed a ceasefire plan. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy rejected it.
The visit was the first stop in what Orbán described as "peace missions". As later described, the plan was for him to go from Kyiv to Moscow to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin. He would then visit Beijing to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping. After that he would travel to the United States for the 2024 Washington summit. The meetings were described as uncoordinated.
On 1 July 2024, a separate report said Ukrainian officials had uncovered a plan to storm parliament and seize control from the government on Constitution Day. Four people implicated in the plot were arrested. Constitution Day is a Ukrainian public holiday marked on 28 June. It commemorates the approval of the Constitution of Ukraine by the Verkhovna Rada on 28 June 1996.
The two stories were unrelated. One concerned Ukraine's diplomacy and its refusal of a ceasefire proposal. The other concerned the security of its own institutions.
