Borrell: Orban will not represent the position of the European Union during his visit to Moscow

The High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell said that the visit of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán to Moscow is taking place exclusively within the framework of bilateral relations between Hungary and Russia.

Borrell emphasized that Budapest, which chairs the Council of the European Union until the end of December 2024, cannot interact with the Russian Federation on behalf of the European Union. According to him, Orban did not receive any mandate from the EU Council to visit Moscow.

The position of the EU remains unchanged and excludes official contacts with Vladimir Putin.

The day before, VSquare and Direkt36 journalist Sabolch Pani wrote that Viktor Orban will visit Russia on July 5 — a few days after his visit to Kyiv, where he offered Ukraine to agree to a ceasefire. Already today, Pani published the alleged route of the plane in which Orban is flying — he took off from Budapest and flew into the airspace of Belarus.

Pani added that Orbanʼs press service informed journalists only that he will be in Azerbaijan on July 5-6.

In a recent interview with Radio Kossuth, quoted by the Hungarian publication Telex, Orbán said that "peace will come when someone does it." But Hungary cannot take responsibility for this, because it has neither a mandate nor the corresponding international political weight.

According to Orbán, peace negotiations will be led by large countries. But Budapest "can be a good instrument of peace in the hands of willing people."

• On July 2, Viktor Orban was in Kyiv on an official visit, during which he called on Ukraine to "cease fire" and negotiate with the aggressor country of the Russian Federation.