The Hungarian government has expressed its willingness to host a peace summit between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin, ensuring fair and secure conditions for such a meeting.
“If they need us, we are at their disposal,” said Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó, emphasizing that Budapest remains ready at any time to facilitate negotiations. He noted that Hungary had offered a similar role in 2022.
According to Szijjártó, Hungary is “the only Western country” maintaining proper and mutually respectful relations with both Moscow and Washington.
Budapest has been mentioned as one of the potential locations for the summit, alongside Geneva, Rome, Vienna, and Istanbul. Hungary’s advantage, he said, lies in its formal withdrawal from the International Criminal Court (ICC), which had issued an arrest warrant for Putin, making participation in a summit extremely difficult in most ICC member states.
However, relations between Hungary and Ukraine remain tense. Kyiv accuses Budapest of supporting Russian interests, while Viktor Orbán’s government criticizes Ukraine for violating the rights of ethnic minorities, including the Hungarian community in western Ukraine.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk opposed the idea, describing Budapest as “a country with a heavy historical burden.” He cited the 1994 Budapest Memorandum, in which Ukraine gave up nuclear weapons in exchange for security guarantees—agreements later violated by Russia with the annexation of Crimea and the 2022 invasion.
