Szijjarto meets Lavrov in Moscow, calls on Ukraine, Russia to sit down at 'negotiating table'

Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto urged Ukraine and Russia to sit down "at the negotiating table" during a meeting with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov in Moscow on Dec. 2.

Szijjarto has repeatedly visited Russia throughout the full-scale war, a step that his European colleagues avoided.

"The past thousand days have proven conclusively that the war in Ukraine cannot be resolved on the battlefield, and therefore the solution must be sought at the negotiating table," Szijjarto wrote on his Facebook.

Severance of diplomatic relations makes a negotiated solution impossible, the Hungarian minister added.

The Russian minister mentioned Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s recent so-called "peace mission,” which sparked outrage across the European Union, with Brussels stressed that the venture had in no way represented the bloc.

Under Orban's leadership, Hungary has repeatedly blocked aid to Kyiv, pushed for negotiations with Moscow, and spouted Kremlin talking points.

Since taking the presidency of the European Commission in July, Orban has lobbied aggressively to stand as a negotiator between Ukraine and Russia.

Orban previously dismissed Zelensky's victory plan, which calls for more long-range weapons and the permission to use them against Russian targets, as "dangerous."

Orban’s Kyiv, Moscow trips test boundaries of EU presidency, expert says

Viktor Orban’s steps show that he is “playing a different game and using the vacuum while the compositions of these (EU) institutions are changing” after the European elections, said Pavel Havlicek, a research fellow at the Association for International Affairs.

The Kyiv IndependentMartin Fornusek