(Reuters) – Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told his Hungarian counterpart Peter Szijjarto during talks in Washington on Wednesday that any initiatives to try to put an end to Moscow’s war in Ukraine should not be based on Russian narratives.
Their meeting on the sidelines of the NATO Summit comes after Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban visited Kyiv, Moscow and Beijing for talks that he has cast as a “peace mission”.
The Hungarian leader who has regularly opposed military aid to Ukraine proposed during his trip to Kyiv that President Volodymyr Zelenskiy consider a ceasefire in the 28-month-old war to accelerate a peace process, an idea rejected by Ukraine.
Kuleba said on X that he had briefed Szijjarto during talks about the battlefield situation and preparations for a follow-up to a summit on Ukraine held in Switzerland in June.
“In this context, I emphasized that no peace initiatives can be based on Russia’s narratives,” he said.
Kyiv officials have dismissed the idea of a ceasefire, saying it would only lead to more Russian attacks later on. They have said there is no alternative to Kyiv’s blueprint for a settlement, which requires Russian troops to leave Ukrainian territory.
Responding to Orban’s ceasefire initiative, President Vladimir Putin reiterated his demands that Kyiv drop its NATO aspirations and relinquish four Ukrainian regions partially occupied by Russia. Kyiv says that would be tantamount to surrender.
Ukraine is working with its allies to prepare a broad plan in time for the second summit that it has said it hopes will take place before the end of the year. Russian representatives who were excluded from the meeting in Switzerland could be invited to participate, Kyiv has said.
(Reporting by Yuliia Dysa; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama, Tom Balmforth, Peter Graff)
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