EU Further Distances Bloc From Unchecked Orban's Visit To Russia.

EU officials have intensified statements distancing the bloc from Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban's surprise visit to Russia less than a week after Budapest assumed the six-month rotating EU Council Presidency and three days after Orban presented a mystery cease-fire proposal to Kyiv.

Orban and his foreign minister, Peter Szijjarto, arrived on July 5 in Russia, where Orban will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to multiple reports including from a Hungarian government source who told RFE/RL's Hungarian Service of the travel plan.

Orban's spokesman shared an image on social media of Orban on a red carpet on a tarmac in Moscow with the message "The #peace mission continues. Second stop: #Moscow."

Szijjarto posted an image of himself exiting a Hungarian Air Force plane and said, "Arriving in Moscow. Another step for peace!"

EU officials might disagree.
An unnamed EU official told RFE/RL that Orban had not informed Brussels of any planned Moscow trip, and his press office did not initially respond to request for comment. EU foreign affairs high representative Josep Borrell said in a statement on July 5 that "Prime Minister Orban has not received any mandate from the EU Council to visit Moscow."

He said the visit "takes place, exclusively, in the framework of the bilateral relations between Hungary and Russia."
Orban maintains close relations with Putin and has resisted Western sanctions and refused to join military and other Western aid efforts to help Ukraine beat back the 28-month full-scale invasion ordered by Putin. He has also whipped up heightened fears of an escalating conflict in recent Hungarian elections. Orban's record with respect to Moscow has sparked concerns that beyond rule-of-law and democracy disputes with Brussels, the Hungarian EU presidency might erode unity among bloc members in the face of Russian aggression. In Kyiv on July 2, Orban presented Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy with a cease-fire proposal he said was aimed at pausing the fighting. He declined to give details but said he asked Zelenskiy "whether it was possible to take a break, to stop the firing, and then continue the negotiations."

Zelenskiy did not express his opinion on the proposal during the briefing with reporters, but a spokesman for the president said later on July 2 that Zelenskiy gave Orban an opportunity to air his thoughts.
Putin, who has denied Ukrainian nationhood and history, has said conditions for ending the war, which has killed and wounded more than 500,000 people on both sides, include Kyiv renouncing any NATO hopes and ceding Crimea and four other occupied regions of Ukraine. Zelenskiy has insisted its territorial integrity -- backed in multiple UN votes and a Ukrainian-initiated Global Peace Summit in Switzerland last month -- must be the foundation of any peace deal. After word leaked on July 4 of Orban's planned visit, European Council President Charles Michel said "the EU rotating presidency has no mandate to engage with Russia on behalf of the EU." "The European Council is clear: Russia is the aggressor, Ukraine is the victim. No discussions about Ukraine can take place without Ukraine," Michel added. Orban last visited Moscow in September 2022, when he paid his respects at the funeral of former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev.