The Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has urged Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán to stop using the war for political gain, stating that there is no real “Christmas truce” on the table.
Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Heorhiy Tykhyy made the statement during a briefing, as reported by the Ukrainian TV channel Espreso.
The Ukrainian official stressed that Budapest’s “proposals” are simply a PR campaign, which Ukraine calls “peace PR.”
“Why are they doing this? Probably for domestic political reasons. There are no real proposals,” Heorhiy Tykhyi said.
He also pointed out that Kyiv has repeatedly asked Hungary to stop manipulating the topics of war, death, and Christmas, both publicly and privately. “This is just a cynical manipulation,” he added.
Tensions between Kyiv and Budapest escalated after Viktor Orban called Vladimir Putin last week.
On December 11, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán had a phone conversation with Russian ruler Vladimir Putin immediately after meeting with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump in Florida.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán wrote he had offered Ukraine and Russia a Christmas ceasefire and a large-scale POW exchange.
Afterwards, Orban said that he had offered Ukraine a ceasefire and a large-scale exchange of prisoners of war for Christmas, but Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy allegedly rejected the idea.
Surprisingly, Russian state propaganda media and pro-Russian outlets in Europe disseminated this statement and information under the false impression that “Ukraine does not want peace.”
Orban said that at the end of the Hungarian presidency of the EU Council, Budapest made new efforts to “achieve peace.”
“We proposed a Christmas truce and a large-scale prisoner exchange. It is sad that President Zelenskyy today clearly rejected and ruled this out. We did everything we could!” Viktor Orban wrote, commenting on Zelensky’s tweet.
At the same time, Viktor Orban failed to say whether he had presented such a proposal to Vladimir Putin and, if so, what the Kremlin leader’s response was.
The Ukrainian side emphasized that it learned about the “truce” proposal from the media, while the Hungarian side did not report it.
Viktor Orban commented on a tweet in which Volodymyr Zelenskyy expressed hope that Orban “will not at least call Assad in Moscow to listen to his hour-long lectures.”
Ukrainian President noted that “achieving real peace and guaranteed security requires the United States’ determination, Europe’s unity, and the commitment of all partners to adhere to the goals and principles of the UN Charter.”
Zelenskyy emphasized that “one should not play on one’s own image at the expense of unity—one should care about common success.”
The day before, Volodymyr Zelenskyy criticized Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s attempts to present himself as a “mediator” in the “settlement” of the war.
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