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Orbán in Kyiv: a ceasefire plan rejected
Summary
A first wartime visit by Hungary's prime minister to Kyiv ended with a ceasefire proposal that Ukraine's president turned down.
What did Viktor Orbán achieve in Kyiv on 2 July 2024? On that day, the Hungarian prime minister visited the Ukrainian capital for the first time since the start of the Russian invasion, and put forward a ceasefire plan. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy rejected it.
The trip was the first stop in what Orbán described as "peace missions". As later reported, he announced several uncoordinated meetings: Zelenskyy in Kyiv, then Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, then Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing. After those, he was to travel to the United States for the 2024 Washington summit and meet Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago. These later stages were not part of the Kyiv visit itself.
The background was a war that continued to cost civilian lives. On the same day, Russian artillery and drones struck Nikopol in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. Two people were killed and nine others were injured.
A visit and a refusal
The contrast between diplomacy in the capital and shelling in the regions defined 2 July 2024. Orbán's arrival in Kyiv was notable because of its timing as well as its novelty: it was his first visit since the full-scale invasion began. His ceasefire proposal, however, found no acceptance from Zelenskyy.
The meetings, as described later, took place while tensions were heightened and while China was increasing its diplomatic ties with Russia amid European Union and United States economic sanctions.
