MOSCOW, July 4. /TASS/. Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has said that he is not willing to call a ceasefire or talk with Russia as Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban asked him to do during his July 2 visit to Kiev.

"As for a ceasefire, I have been very clear: we are at war and we cannot talk about a ceasefire just like that," he said in an interview with Bloomberg. Zelensky claimed that Russia could use the truce to accumulate forces and resume military operations.

"This is why it [a ceasefire agreement] can only be reached on a transparent international platform in the presence of countries with trusted leaders," he went on to say. According to Zelensky, a ceasefire would only freeze the conflict, not end it, so there needs to be a clear plan about what comes next.

Orban said at a briefing in Kiev earlier that he had suggested Zelensky announce a ceasefire. The latter, however, did not mention the Hungarian premier’s initiative at the same briefing. Igor Zhovkva, head of the Ukrainian presidential office, said later that such initiatives could not be considered separately from other aspects of efforts to resolve the conflict.

Russian President Vladimir Putin set forth the conditions for resolving the situation in Ukraine at a meeting with senior Foreign Ministry officials on June 14. His terms included Ukraine withdrawing troops from Donbass and Novorossia and abandoning plans to join NATO. In addition, Moscow believes that all Western sanctions must be lifted and Ukraine’s non-bloc and non-nuclear status must be guaranteed. Putin noted that if Ukraine and the West turned down the initiative, the conditions might change in the future. Kiev rejected Russia’s peace plan.