Orbán calls on EU to launch peace talks with Moscow over Ukraine

Stay informed with free updates

Simply sign up to the War in Ukraine myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has demanded the EU begin “direct discussions with Russia on a ceasefire” in the war against Ukraine.

Orban also said he opposed efforts to find any consensus on Ukraine among the bloc’s 27 member states. His demand was made in a letter to EU Council President António Costa which was sent on Saturday and has been seen by the Financial Times.

The threat by the EU’s most pro-Russia leader to block any agreement comes after US President Donald Trump decided to open bilateral peace negotiations with the Kremlin, bypassing Kyiv and Europe, and Trump’s verbal assault on Ukraine’s leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the White House on Friday.

His letter comes after Brussels circulated draft conclusions for an upcoming summit of EU leaders that include additional military support to Ukraine and a rapid increase in defence spending by European capitals. Zelenskyy has been invited to attend the summit, which takes place on Thursday.

“It has become evident that there are strategic differences in our approach to Ukraine that cannot be bridged by drafting or communication,” Orban wrote to Costa.

Orban’s ambassador to the EU made similar points during a meeting of EU envoys in Brussels on Friday, according to people briefed on the private meeting.

Senior European leaders are due to meet in London on Sunday for a hastily arranged summit hosted by UK prime minister Sir Keir Starmer, in a bid to formulate proposals to collectively protect Ukraine and boost spending on defence, reducing the continent’s dependence on America.

Friday’s very public disagreement between Trump and Zelenskyy underlined just how far the US has moved in recent weeks away from its previous position of sustained support for Ukraine against Russia — and the distance now between Washington and its European allies.

Both Orban’s letter and his ambassador’s comments cited a UN security council resolution passed with the support of the US and Russia this week that did not refer to Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine and demanded a “swift end to the conflict”. European capitals abstained on the vote.

“The [UN] resolution signals a new phase in the history of the conflict and renders all previous agreed language by the European Council irrelevant,” Orban wrote in the letter to Costa.