On 13 August the European Commission disbursed nearly €4.2 billion to Ukraine under the First Pillar of the Ukraine Facility. During the four-year plan, the EU aims to provide up to €50 billion in grants and loans for the country’s recovery, reconstruction, and modernization. Meanwhile, Kyiv has made gains in Kursk, which, according to the Institute for the Study of War, is a pivotal moment in the war with the potential to change its trajectory.
As expected, the ‘chat’ between former US President and current Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and Elon Musk has gone viral. The interview, broadcast live on X on Monday evening, US time, has garnered over 168 million views by the time of writing. The discussion spanned a wide range of topics, including inflation, the border crisis, and the Democrats’ foreign policy. Trump, of course, did not hold back in his criticism of his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba stated that Ukraine is ready to negotiate with Russia if Moscow acts in good faith, following his meeting with his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi. Kuleba’s visit to China sheds new light on Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s peace mission: Orbán could play an important role in organizing the next peace conference, where Kyiv would welcome Russia’s participation.
Balázs Orbán, the political director of the Hungarian Prime Minister, discussed Viktor Orbán’s peace mission and its impact in a lengthy post on X. He wrote: ‘The winds of change are upon us; it’s time for European leaders to overcome years of war psychosis!’
Despite the series of peace plans formulated over the last years, the positions of the presidents of the warring nations, Zelenskyy and Putin still look irreconcilable. As Prime Minister Orbán highlighted on numerous occasions, however, ‘peace won’t happen of its own accord’ and ‘without dialogue it is very difficult to see how they will move in the direction of peace’.
After some details had been circulating in the press for days, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán decided to release his ten-point proposal and assessment he had sent to the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, following his peace mission. The document is the most detailed plan for achieving peace in Ukraine that has ever been made public since the war broke out in February 2022.
Reportedly, the visa waiver scheme is part of President Aleksandr Lukashenko’s efforts to better relations with Western Europe. The citizens of three EU Member States, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland, have been allowed visa-free travel to Belarus since 2022.
On 18 July the European Parliament re-elected European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen with 401 votes in favour. In her speech before the vote, von der Leyen made numerous political promises for the next five years but also, of course, criticized Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s peace mission.
While left-wing EU politicians are trying to organize a boycott of Hungary’s presidency of the EU Council, Chancellor Karl Nehammer of Austria has stated that he and the ministers of his party is not willing to take part in it, and vowed they will ‘continue to participate in sessions and meetings of the EU Council Presidency’.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán travelled to Florida for the fifth stop of his peace mission, where he was received by former US President Donald Trump. Trump thanked Orbán for his efforts, stating that peace must be brought about as quickly as possible, as many lives have been lost in a war that should never have started.