By Dmitry Antonov and Krisztina Than
MOSCOW/BUDAPEST (Reuters) – Russian President Vladimir Putin backs Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s efforts to achieve a Christmas ceasefire in Ukraine and a major exchange of prisoners of war, the Kremlin said on Thursday, even though Kyiv has scoffed at the idea.
Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine has left tens of thousands of dead, displaced millions and triggered the biggest crisis in relations between Moscow and the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.
Orban made the proposals in a call to Putin on Wednesday, the Kremlin and Hungary said, without giving more details.
“The Russian side fully supports Orban’s efforts aimed at finding a peaceful settlement and resolving humanitarian issues related to the prisoner exchange,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) fleshed out details on a potential prisoner exchange to the Hungarian embassy, Peskov said.
Shortly after the Orban-Putin call, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy criticised the Turkish leader for undermining Western unity and appeared to mock Hungary’s peace efforts.
Orban said it was sad that Zelenskiy clearly rejected the proposals.
UKRAINE CEASEFIRE?
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, a self-styled master of brokering agreements and author of the 1987 book “Trump: the Art of the Deal”, has vowed to swiftly end the conflict but has given no details on how he might achieve that.
On June 14, Putin set out his opening terms for an immediate end to the war: Ukraine must drop ambition to join military alliance NATO and withdraw troops from four Ukrainian regions claimed and mostly controlled by Russia.
“Russia has never refused peace talks and has repeatedly stated its readiness to resume them on the basis of the Istanbul Agreements of 2022,” Peskov said.
Kyiv has insisted that it also needs security guarantees, namely membership in the NATO military alliance that would prevent Russia using a ceasefire to prepare another invasion.
Russia has said it would never accept Ukraine joining NATO – or the deployment of NATO troops on Ukrainian territory.
(Reporting by Dmitry Antonov in Moscow and Krisztina Than and Anita Komuves in Budapest; Writing by Anastasia Teterevleva and Guy Faulconbridge; Editing by Andrew Osborn and Andrew Cawthorne)
