KYIV/MOSCOW: The Kremlin said on Monday that Budapest was chosen as the venue for an upcoming summit between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump because Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has good ties with both leaders.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters: “Orban has quite warm relations with President Trump and very constructive relations with President Putin.
“And this, of course, greatly contributed to the understanding that was worked out during the last phone call,” he added, referring to last week’s conversation between Trump and Putin that led to them agreeing to meet in Budapest.
Orban, a nationalist and conservative, has repeatedly criticized Western backing of Ukraine, which neighbors his own country. Earlier this year, he said that Russia had already won the war in Ukraine.
Some European governments that support Ukraine have said it is inappropriate to host Putin for a summit in a European Union member state. EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas on Monday described it as “not nice.”
Peskov said that work was only just beginning on the summit, which would be aimed at advancing a resolution to the Ukraine conflict, and developing relations between Russia and the United States.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said he would be ready to join the Hungary summit if he is invited.
“If I am invited to Budapest – if it is an invitation in a format where we meet as three or, as it’s called, shuttle diplomacy, President Trump meets with Putin and President Trump meets with me – then in one format or another, we will agree,” Zelensky told reporters in remarks released on Monday.
The Ukrainian president criticized the choice of Hungary, which has a terse relationship with Kyiv and is seen as the most Kremlin-sympathetic member of the European Union.
“I do not believe that a prime minister who blocks Ukraine everywhere can do anything positive for Ukrainians or even provide a balanced contribution,” Zelensky said, referring to Hungarian leader Orban.
Kyiv has said it is ready to join a three-way meeting between Zelensky, Putin and Trump in a number of neutral countries, including Turkiye, Switzerland and the Vatican.
In 1994, Moscow signed a memorandum in Budapest aimed at ensuring security for Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan in exchange for them giving up numerous nuclear weapons left from the Soviet era.
“Another ‘Budapest’ scenario wouldn’t be positive either,” Zelensky said.
Trump has been aiming for a speedy end to the years-long conflict in Ukraine since he returned to White House earlier this year, pushing for a series of direct talks between Ukrainian and Russian officials and hosting Putin for a summit in Alaska – diplomatic efforts that have ultimately not lead to any breakthrough.
