Hungarian Conservative

Minister of Prime Minister’s Office Gergely Gulyás stated on Friday that Hungary does not want to blackmail Ukraine over the halted transit of Russian Lukoil oil shipments via Ukraine to Hungary and Slovakia. However, Gulyás pointed out that if no solution is found in the near future, ‘other steps should be considered’.

After Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba stated on Wednesday that Ukraine was ready to negotiate with Russia if Moscow ‘acts in good faith’, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov responded on Thursday that Russia was willing to negotiate with Ukraine even if Volodymyr Zelenskyy remains president. Viktor Orbán’s peace mission has undoubtedly contributed to these positive developments towards peace, and the Hungarian Prime Minister could play a crucial role in mediating further talks.

Bulgaria has offered to help maintain Hungary’s energy security if Ukraine does not resume Russian Lukoil oil shipments to Hungary in the near future. Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó called Sofia’s offer a sincere gesture of friendship.

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.

‘Bluntly, the war in Ukraine has unveiled the West’s ESG goals for the hypocrisy they are. The political and business leaders who promoted them are now caught up in their own contradictions,’ Khaled Abou Zahr has written in an opinion piece published by Arab News. The article highlights the contradictions between Western leaders’ warmongering statements and their promotion of green policies and a sustainable future.

Hungary and Slovakia are taking joint action against Ukraine over its halting of Russian oil shipments to the two EU member states. This move seriously threatens the long-term energy security of both countries, and is considered a violation of the EU–Ukraine Association Agreement by Budapest and Bratislava.

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’.

New sanctions by the Ukrainian government have forced oil transports from the Russian oil procedure Lukoil to be stopped to Hungary and Slovakia. However, Hungary is still receiving gas shipments from Russia uninterrupted through the TurkStream pipeline.

Two important events played a role in Rákóczi’s return to Hungary in 1703. On the one hand, the unfolding War of the Spanish Succession (1701–1714), which meant the withdrawal of most of the imperial regiments from the country, and on the other, the uprising of the serfs of Munkács, provided the perfect opportunity for Rákóczi to organize an armed rebellion. At the request of Tamás Esze, the leader of the uprising in the Tiszahát region, Francis II Rákóczi took the lead in the what developed into a War of Independence, issuing a proclamation calling on nobles and non-nobles alike to take up arms.

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.

All indications suggest that Brussels simply cannot get over Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s peace mission. In the latest development, 63 MEPs have written an open letter to EU leaders, urging them to strip Hungary of its voting rights in response to the prime minister’s ‘rogue’ diplomacy. Additionally, the European Commission has instructed its commissioners to skip informal ministerial meetings organized by the Hungarian EU presidency.

Shortly after assuming the presidency of the European Union, Viktor Orbán visited Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, followed by Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping, to facilitate the end of the Russo-Ukrainian war.

As expected, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is continuing the peace mission he started in Kyiv last week at the NATO summit in Washington, DC. Meanwhile, the defence alliance is increasing its support for Ukraine, with Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg calling the path to NATO membership for the war-torn country irreversible.

Eight prominent British and American public figures have published an open letter in the Financial Times calling for an immediate ceasefire and peace talks in Ukraine. According to one of the authors, their letter was influenced by Viktor Orbán’s peace mission launched last week.

A rare opinion piece has been published by Die Welt recently discussing Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s peace mission that kicked off last week. The article concludes that Orbán ‘deserves a chance’ and is doing more for peace than those in Washington and Brussels who criticize him.

The integration of the countries of the region into the EU is a decades-long process, the positive outcome of which is still to be seen. Thus, the number of Eurosceptics in the region has multiplied in recent years. As a consequence of the protracted accession negotiations, which have not even started for several Western Balkan states, some countries in the region have forged closer economic, political, and cultural ties with non-EU actors.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed the prospects for a settlement in Ukraine and their countries’ bilateral relations in Moscow on Friday. The visit to Russia was the second stop of Orbán’s peace mission, following talks in Kyiv on Tuesday.

Viktor Orbán’s plane had not even landed in Moscow when the Brussels elite were already criticizing the Hungarian Prime Minister for his visit to Russia. First, Charles Michel, and later Josep Borrell, distanced themselves from Orbán’s trip, stating that the prime minister was not representing the EU in Russia—although this was never claimed to be the case to begin with.

‘If the Hungarian government’s foreign policy in recent months had truly been to serve Russian interests, then, for example, the NATO secretary general would not have left Budapest with a free hand from Hungary to negotiate and conduct NATO training and support for Ukraine, as well as to undertake a long-term financial commitment required for military support, even if Hungary will not itself participate in these NATO efforts.’

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has allegedly instructed his three ministers to examine the consequences of leaving the International Criminal Court (ICC), with a particular focus on the implications for the European Union. This decision is likely prompted by the ICC Chief Prosecutor’s request in May for the issuance of an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

In his regular Friday interview with public Kossuth radio Orbán emphasized that Hungary, as the rotating president of the European Union, does not have the mandate to negotiate peace in the Russo–Ukrainian war on behalf of the EU. However, he can assess the situation to understand each party’s position.

According to press reports, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy dismissed Hungarian Prime Minister Orbán’s proposal for a time-bound ceasefire in Ukraine. However, Zelenskyy praised the start of ‘completely different relations’ between Hungary and Ukraine, which could soon be formalized in a new agreement between the two countries.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to consider a time-bound ceasefire during talks in Kyiv on Tuesday. The two leaders discussed contentious issues between their countries, both described the meeting as constructive.

The recent terror attacks in Dagestan are only some of the many signs that Russia is facing a real threat in terms of radical Islam in the Caucasus. In October 2023 a crowd of Muslim fanatics besieged the Makhachkala airport in search of Jews. The antisemitic riot which led to sixty people being arrested left the airport with smashed windows and injured policemen.

In a recent article, POLITICO Brussels criticizes Hungary for its close economic ties with China but fails to mention that one of the main sponsors of Euro 2024 in Germany is the Chinese company BYD. In fact, the number one trading partner of the host Germans in 2023 was none other than China.

The America First Policy Institute (AFPI) has recently published a book about a new proposed foreign policy approach towards the Russo⁠–⁠Ukrainian war by the US, which was reviewed by Zoltán Koskovics, a geopolitical analyst for the Center for Fundamental Rights in Magyar Nemzet.

‘If we Europeans want to keep up with the Americans, we Europeans must become great again,’ Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán emphasized in an interview with German newspaper Berliner Morgenpost. PM Orbán also praised former US President Donald Trump for his pro-peace stance regarding the war in Ukraine, and spoke about his beloved sport, football, as well.

According to a statement from the Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, at the Ukraine peace summit on Sunday Szijjártó highlighted that he represents a neighbouring country to Ukraine, one that has lived in the shadow of war for nearly two and a half years, and has directly faced the humanitarian consequences of the conflict.

‘Else than the Azov militia, the most well-known example of radicals fighting in Ukraine is that of Denis Kapustin (also known as Denis Nikitin), the leader of the Russian Volunteer Corps (RVC), who led multiple raids into Russia from Ukraine. According to POLITICO, Kapustin is regarded as ‘one of the most influential neo-Nazi activists’ in today’s era. The praise these military formations received in the West for their reckless actions in Belgorod, without recognition of the dangers of their radical ideology, also feeds into Russian propaganda and helps it draw a parallel between the alleged past and present support the West gives to Nazis.’

A turnabout in the Hungarian stance seems unlikely at the moment. The Hungarian government has consistently vetoed further military assistance to Ukraine as well, and will most probably not change course regarding Ukrainian accession to the EU either under the Hungarian rotating presidency.