Home › Security › Orbán in Kyiv: a ceasefire plan rejected
Orbán in Kyiv: a ceasefire plan rejected
Summary
A look back at the Hungarian prime minister's first wartime visit to Ukraine, and at the shelling of Nikopol on the same day.
What did Viktor Orbán's first trip to Kyiv since the start of the full-scale invasion achieve? On 2 July 2024, the Hungarian prime minister arrived in the Ukrainian capital and proposed a ceasefire plan. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy rejected it.
The visit was the opening stage of what Orbán described as "peace missions". Later, in July 2024, he went on to Moscow to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin, then to Beijing to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping, and then to the United States. The meetings were described as uncoordinated. They took place amid heightened tensions and the continuing Russian invasion, with China deepening diplomatic ties to Russia while the European Union and the United States maintained economic sanctions.
War continued on the ground
The diplomacy unfolded alongside continued fighting. On 2 July 2024, Russian artillery and drones struck Nikopol in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. Two people were killed and nine others were injured.
What the day showed
The two events set a diplomatic proposal against the daily reality of the war. Kyiv turned down the ceasefire plan the same day it was presented, while civilians in Nikopol came under fire. The rejection meant the first stop of Orbán's tour ended without agreement, before he travelled on to Moscow and the other capitals on his itinerary.
