Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban called Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday, the 11th of December, to discuss peace plans for Ukraine, with the Kremlin confirming that the phone call took place, adding that it was initiated by Budapest, reports Politico.
“This morning I had an hour-long phone conversation with President Putin,” Orban wrote on social media.
“These are the most dangerous weeks of the Russia-Ukraine war. We are taking all possible diplomatic steps to argue in favour of a ceasefire and peace talks,” he added.
According to the Kremlin, Orban expressed interest in “promoting joint efforts” to seek political and diplomatic ways to resolve the war in Ukraine, while Putin said Kyiv was preventing “the possibility of a peaceful resolution of the conflict”.
The two leaders also discussed energy and economic cooperation, as well as “the tense situation in the Middle East region in connection with the recent events in Syria”, the Kremlin said.
Orban’s phone call with Putin came just two days after his meeting with US President-elect Donald Trump and billionaire tech tycoon Elon Musk at Trump’s home in Florida.
However, according to Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov, the Hungarian leader did not convey any messages from Trump and he also denied that Orbán and Putin had discussed a possible meeting in the future.
The Hungarian prime minister is the second European leader to call the Russian president in the past month – German Chancellor Olaf Scholz also called Putin on the 15th of November.
Orban was also the first European Union (EU) leader to meet Putin in Moscow in July, shortly after taking over the EU presidency, despite Western efforts to isolate the Russian leader.