Zelenskyy on Orban’s visit to Russia: I do not support it, but it is his decision
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy commented on the visit of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban to Moscow.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy said this during a press conference, Censor.NET reports.
"We are not at war with the Hungarians. We need to have strong, friendly relations, or at least build at least pragmatic ones at first. There are many of our people there. So I think his (Orban's - Ed.) visit to Ukraine was right. If he used Ukraine to make it comfortable for him to go to Russia afterwards... I did not know about his visit to Russia when he was in Kyiv. If he used it that way, it is wrong. I do not support his visit to Russia. But this is his decision," the president said.
Zelenskyy recalled that the EU and NATO countries had condemned Orban's visit to Russia.
"We need to try to build relations between our countries. We have to try," he added.
Viktor Orbán's visits to Moscow and Beijing
To recap, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban visited Kyiv on 2 July and met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
On 5 July, Orban paid an official visit to Moscow. In the Russian capital, he met with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin.
During a joint press conference with Putin, Orban made several statements about Russia's war against Ukraine. In particular, he stressed that Kyiv and Moscow's positions on peace are "very far apart".
Orban arrived in the Chinese capital Beijing on Monday, 8 July, as part of his "peacekeeping mission".
In turn, a number of European leaders reacted rather sharply to the Hungarian prime minister's visit to Moscow. They stressed that Orban did not represent the EU in Russia during his meeting with Putin.
