At a meeting with Vladimir Zelenskyy, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban asked how he felt about the possibility of a truce to speed up peace talks for Ukraine. However, Zelenskyy was not too happy about it and expressed his fear that a ceasefire would not benefit Ukraine, Orban notes in an interview with Die Weltwoche.
VICTOR ORBAN, Hungarian Prime Minister: We don’t have much time because people are dying. From a Christian point of view, every day is a lost day. So my idea was to ask Mr Zelenskyy , why don’t we change the order of things? Why… What is his opinion on the possibility of establishing a ceasefire in the first place? Even a time-limited one — for a fortnight, for three weeks, for four weeks — and say that during this ceasefire we can accelerate the negotiations on the peace process.
ROGER KOPPEL, host of Die Weltwoche: First a ceasefire, then peace.
VICTOR ORBAN: Yes. So we can accelerate the process that could lead us to peace.
ROGER KOPPEL: And what did he say?
VICTOR ORBAN: He said, he had certain doubts about it. He wasn’t very happy about it. He said, let’s consider this possibility, let’s think about it. He had a bad experience with previous ceasefires, which, in his interpretation, did not bring anything good to Ukraine. So he understood the position presented, he explained his limitations. And we will see how to proceed further.