Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin, 5 July 2024: Alexander Nemenov / AFP
The Kremlin has confirmed that Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has offered Russian President Vladimir Putin a Christmas truce and a prisoner exchange with Kyiv. The proposal was made the day before, but the Ukrainian side denies that it has held talks with Budapest on the issue, AFP reports .
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov noted that Orban, during his conversation with Putin, proposed a large prisoner exchange on Christmas Eve and a ceasefire for the holiday itself. “We have conveyed to the Hungarian embassy our previous demand for a prisoner exchange,” he added, stressing that Russia supports all of Hungary’s efforts to mediate peace talks.
Viktor Orban also made his proposal public on platform X, saying that he had also passed it on to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who allegedly rejected it. “We offered a ceasefire for Christmas and a large prisoner exchange. It is a shame that President Zelensky clearly rejected this today. We did everything we could!” Orban wrote.
For its part, Kyiv has a different version of events. According to Ukrainian presidential adviser Dmytro Lytvyn, Ukraine did not take part in discussions on a possible truce or prisoner exchange. “As usual, the Hungarian side did not discuss this with Ukraine. And, as always, Hungary did not inform us about its negotiations with Moscow,” Lytvyn said.
Another advisor to the President of Ukraine, Mykhailo Podolyak, added that Ukraine does not need such a “mediator”. He stressed that these proposals make no sense without the participation of the Ukrainian side.
This is not the first such initiative by Orban. In July, the Hungarian prime minister undertook an independent “peace mission” during which he visited Moscow and met with Putin, drawing criticism from some European leaders. Orban is an ally of US President-elect Donald Trump, who has also called for a ceasefire in Ukraine and for talks between Kyiv and Moscow. Trump said that during a recent meeting with Zelenskyy, he assessed the losses of both sides in the war, saying that Ukraine had lost about 400,000 soldiers and Russia about 600,000, calling for an immediate ceasefire and the start of peace talks.
