BUDAPEST, September 13. /TASS/. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said that his peace initiative made other European leaders think about the settlement of the conflict in Ukraine.
"European countries have been drawn into hostilities, they have taken the path of war. <...> A ceasefire and peace talks would serve everyone’s interests, because it [the conflict] cannot be solved on the battlefield. If there is no solution on the battlefield, then an agreement must be sought, regardless of both sides’ initial goals," he said on Kossuth radio. According to Orban, following his visits to Moscow and Beijing, "serious debates" on the conflict settlement started in Europe, without which nothing was possible to achieve. At the same time, the Hungarian prime minister cited the example of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who started saying "things for which the German media would flay the skin off his back."
Orban added that he was preparing new events as part of the peace initiative, expected "in the coming weeks."
On September 9, the ATV TV channel reported that Orban was preparing a new "impressive" event in September within the framework of the peace initiative to settle the conflict in Ukraine. According to its information, the day before Orban told reporters at an event that "the peace mission is ongoing," the prime minister "worked on it during the summer," and hinted that an "impressive" event would take place in September. However, according to the TV channel, Orban did not give any details about the upcoming event.
On July 1, Hungary took over the rotating EU presidency for six months. On July 5, Orban visited Moscow, where he met with Russian President Vladimir Putin and discussed possible ways to resolve the conflict in Ukraine and the start of peace talks. Later, the prime minister traveled to Beijing, where he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Prior to his visit to Russia, Orban discussed the settlement of the conflict in Ukraine with Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky in Kiev on July 2. The discussion in Moscow and Beijing of possible peace initiatives without taking into account the opinion of Brussels caused an explosion of indignation among EU leaders. They felt that Hungary was undermining European unity and the community's course of maximizing support for Ukraine.